Showing posts with label orthodox deception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orthodox deception. Show all posts
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Was the Trinity always the "Orthodox" position?The Truth!
Bart Ehrman is an apostate from the Christian faith.I do not in any capacity advocate much of what he claims or represents.He,however,because he's an agnostic now,has no reason to "take sides" so to speak in theological debates about the nature of Christ.It wouldn't really concern him whether God is one or three or three people in one "homoousios" since he doesn't even worship him anymore.As abhorrent as I find many of his sentiments and beliefs,I have to admit that he's seemingly on the mark with much of what he says about the "orthodox corruption of scripture" in his book of the same name.Not all of his opinions on the scriptures are sound,but with a little discernment it's easily detectable what should be heeded or discarded in what he has to offer in his book.All the quotes in this blog are taken from his book "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament."I won't be getting into how certain texts have been corrupted to make them seem a little more "orthodox"(as that term is so defined today anyway)right now,but rather how Christians(some willfully selective and ignorant..others just simply innocently ill informed about their own history)neither herald nor profess the real truth about what the earliest Christians believed.
Yes,one prevailing Christian trend is to rewrite history to make it more palatable in conformity to our own ideas regarding doctrine.For instance,most Christians wouldn't hesitate to tell you that in nascent Christianity,everyone was clearly a true saint who believed God was three people.Is this accurate?Or is it as about as true and unbiased as the "Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom" book?Well,the least we can do is examine the other side to all the issues for a balanced & honest approach.Just like an orthodox Christian would desire to urge a devout Jehovah's Witness to examine their "true" history,I as an unorthodox Christian urge you to examine the history of your system of beliefs just as seriously.After all,when we take bias men's selective assessment(ones with a specific agenda mind you)as unquestionably true without critical thinking of our own weighing all the information,we're wide open for being fooled.Ehrman says:
"During its first two and a half centuries,Christianity comprised a number of competing theologies,or better,a number of competing Christian groups advocating a variety of theologies.There was as yet no established "orthodoxy,"that is,no basic theological system acknowledged by the majority of church leaders and laity.Different local churches supported different understandings of the religion,while different understandings of the religion were present even within the same local church."..p. 4
Further,:
"The classical understanding of the relationship of orthodoxy and heresy met a devastating challenge in 1934 with the publication of Walter Bauer's "Recht-glaubigkeit und Ketzerei im altesten Christentum",possibly the most significant book on early Christianity written in modern times.Bauer argued that the early Christian church in fact did not comprise a single orthodoxy from which emerged a variety of competing heretical minorities.Instead,early Christianity embodied a number of divergent forms,no one of which represented the clear and powerful majority of believers against all others.In some regions,what was later to be termed "heresy" was in fact the original and only form of Christianity.In other regions,views later deemed heretical co-existed with views that would come to be embraced by the church as a whole,with most believers not drawing hard and fast lines of demarcation between the competing views.To this extent,"orthodoxy",in the sense of a unified group advocating an apostolic doctrine accepted by the majority of Christians everywhere,did not exist in the second and third centuries.Nor was "heresy" secondarily derived from an original teaching through an infusion of jewish ideas or pagan philosophy.Beliefs that were,at later times,embraced as orthodoxy and condemned as heresy were in fact competing interpretations of Christianity,one of which eventually(but not initially)acquired domination because of singular historical and social forces.Only when one social group had exerted itself sufficiently over the rest of Christendom did a "majority" opinion emerge;only then did the "right belief" represent the view of the Christian church at large."p.7
Ehrman goes on to note that Bauer's claims were based upon the closest scrutiny of the evidence from ancient sources for the Christianity in various regions,particularly Edessa,Egypt,Antioch,Asia Minor,Macedonia,and Rome.He found that,contrary to the claims of Eusebius(a fourth century bishop who was influential and who was deemed the so-called "father of church history"),the predominant Christian view was what today would be deemed "heretical."Ehrman further notes that even though there were folks scattered in these regions who embraced some form of what later became "orthodox",they were the minority to be sure.Much of the literature and opinions produced by the so called "heretics"(by today's standards that is) would NOT survive because,as Ehrman says:
"One would naturally not expect the victors of the struggle to reproduce the literature of their opponents."p.9
As Ehrman also notes,even those who seemed at least somewhat orthodox by today's standards(some of the much-hailed and quoted early church fathers,namely) had certainly not imagined today's trinity formulation and all it's nuances so definitively or meticulously.There was definitely "social ostracism,economic pressures,and political machinations"(as Ehrman puts it,p.15) that led to the "orthodoxy" held today.Not only that,the Early Church Fathers that are venerated in some respect by so many Christians today as fathers of their faith had some truly peculiar and "heretical" beliefs themselves!A small sampling:
"Both Clement of Alexandria and Origen,for example,acknowledge that Jesus' body could readily change appearance at will--a decidedly docetic notion--with Clement claiming that Jesus ingested food not for nourishment but simply to convince his followers that he actually had a body."..p.10
Irenaeus believed there were four gospels because there were "four winds" and "four corners of the earth",and therefore four pillars,or Gospels,upon which it is built.(Adv. Haer. III,11,7-8)
I see Christians all the time condemning Jehovah's Witnesses for following an organization and men with such a dubious history of peculiar beliefs,yet they do the same thing.If you're going to tell a Jehovah's Witness that one reason the Watchtower organization is corrupt is because of some of the particularly peculiar things Charles Taze Russell believed,did and taught,then the very least you can do is recognize the imperfections and peculiarities in the beliefs of the "fathers" of your faith.You will often hear trinitarians hailing the Early Church Fathers (yes,the same ones with beliefs that were heretical)as if they are true heroes.Even the Jehovah's Witnesses aren't bold enough to call the governing body their heroes.And if it's ok to be so selective when presenting the beliefs of these "heroes",then I suppose,if we're going to be unhypocritical,I could present a good case for the Watchtower.All I would have to do is omit all the lies,all the bloodguilt,all the hypocrisy,all the questionable beliefs.
Just like the Watchtower compels JW's to accept their interpretations of scripture by use of the power exerted over them by certain men with weapons of intellectual intimidation and salvation threats intact,"orthodoxy" accomplishes acceptance of it's questionable dogmas much the same way.
"For it is a historical fact that ,owing to a variety of reasons,one group within early Christianity achieved social dominance and enforced its views on other groups that had supported divergent opinions.Looked at in sociohistorical terms,orthodoxy and heresy are concerned as much with struggles over power as with debates over ideas."p.12
Should we really want to garner our "truth" from the effects of power struggles,social dominance,bloodshed,intellectual intimidation,threats,and the like?The history of the establishment of what is now termed "orthodox" has an ugly trail of blood.Besides,:
"If the term orthodoxy means the dominant form of Christianity,then prior to its domination,the views of this group are scarcely orthodox.."..p.12
So it's kinda funny how orthodoxy wasn't always "orthodox" at all yet people choose to believe it was because they don't or won't look outside the box where they are anymore than the average Jehovah's Witness would.If they do,the repurcussions might not be anymore attractive than those suffered by conscientious JW's who question the protocol of the Watchtower "organization."
Fact is,our "traditions" and what we've always been taught,that which is thoroughly and stubbornly ingrained in our conscious,is not necessarily true or real.But how palatable it is to continue believing it is and deceiving ourselves at all costs to maintain the comfort it compels!How horrible it would be to have to tell ourselves we've been deceived,receive possible shunning from our respected and well loved piers,receive constant labels and threats to our salvation,etc.Such terrible things would of course scare most any human being/Christian from the kind of critical thinking and genuine truth seeking they should embrace wholeheartedly.After all,if there's any possible way to take scriptures,twist them,and make them "fit" our heritage,that is often undertaken to ensure the comfort that results from ALREADY being completely and utterly right about everything.Pier approval.Cozy traditions.Feels good.And as human beings,it's only natural to run vigorously toward what feels good and away from what hurts.Even though Jesus said we are called to suffer as he did.
Even if Jesus seems to contradict what we've been taught and come to believe(everywhere,left and right),common sensically and earnestly,we human beings have a consistent and concerning history,right along with the Pharisees ,of insisting that we have the truth that Jesus lacks.(when it's the other way around of course!)I mean,it's so easy to find a few texts here and there that can conform to our ideas,just like the Jews who opposed & persecuted the Christ had in their arsenal.They too possessed a particular understanding of sacred texts.They just KNEW they were right.Deception wasn't possible for them at all.Being blind was real for others,but not for themselves!Yah's simple words and Christ's simple words weren't good enough at all.But they sure knew the scriptures!Right?
Doctrines that are true don't need to have their history of development concealed,colored, or fabricated.They also don't need to be "formulated" at all because Christ stated creeds that were simple,clear,and not mysterious at all.God didn't want us to calculate the number that he is while we ignore common sense mathematics and qualify his Son's words at every turn.Just to make them fit a cherished belief,of course.The Pharisees had cherished beliefs too.Christ challenged those.Christ also challenges you.Let him.
Disclaimer:
I'm not supporting Ehrman or even the nontrinitarians who had the majority position at certain points in history.There are certainly differing views within the nontrinitarian community about who exactly Christ was.I'm also not suggesting the Early Church Fathers mentioned in the video weren't Christians just because they didn't have every belief accurate.I'm never the one who determines who a true Christian is in God's eyes.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Dear Christians against the Watchtower(3rd blog on this)
1st two blogs about this subject:
Dear Christians against the Watchtower
Christians,the Watchtower,the trinity,and hypocrisy
Now,# 3:
Ever since exiting the Watchtower organization,I've become somewhat hyper-sensitive to the hypocrisy and deception in religious systems.Amazingly enough,those comfortable in their "orthodoxy",however it is they choose to define that,either do not recognize,or deliberately deceive themselves into believing,that only select "cults" or "outside" institutions are steeped in lies and injustice.That they're somehow exempt,completely and utterly content in what they've always been taught,much like those raised as JW's or Muslims or Mormons.Yet they believe only those like the JW's and Catholics have wrong ideas and a history of atrocities.They,much like the WT,justify and excuse their own atrocities ranging from bloodguilt to mass deceit,complacent again,in their peer approved little system and dearly held traditions.Doesn't the bible say that Babylon the Great has children?Could it be those denominations that think they've reformed yet have held on to her greatest "mysteries" & deceits?
I personally think there's a concerning lack of regard for the bible and the milk of the word,for Yahushua's plain and unambiguous words,for the context,larger and smaller,of passages.For the historical reality and thought-forms of the bible authors themselves.This presents fertile breeding ground for lies to grow and deception to flourish.If you find yourself plucking select passages,few and far between,creating false dilemmas,or over-inferring to prove your "essential doctrines",you may have a problem,aware or not.That's what the WT effectively does.Orthodoxy likewise does,imho.You label,possibly even shun,and condemn to your false idea of hell,those who dare to differ.Even as you demonize the JW's for practicing the same.
What do you have to lose?How much do you have invested?How much time,energy,and emotion have you spent to justify your theological belief system or organized group who supposedly "alone" has the "truth"?How much focus has there been on doctrine and comraderie,peer approval and so called orthodoxy?And justifying it all?With sophistry,false dilemmas,deceiving books,and support from those who will help you remain in your deceit?When I used to frequent the Kingdom hall,just like you're probably frequenting some affable gathering,I was surrounded by those who assisted me in my deceit.Does something feel "off?"How often do you read the word?Do you make time to study your belief system(scholars,google,popular books etc.) often in neglect of actually reading the word day and night,as commanded?I used to read so much Watchtower literature that I literally didn't have enough time to study the bible alone like I should have.And when I did,it was through the Watchtower publications' lens just like those in Christendom read it through the lens of their presuppositions and traditions.Reading their own stubborn ideas INTO scripture instead of gleaning truth FROM scripture.
Trust the spirit to lead you to the food you need to nourish your spiritual starvation.Even if we seem to be heart deep,minds set,on spiritual matters,because of the condition in the world and the temptation abounding,we must be OBSESSIVELY inclined toward a kingdom focus.If we don't even know what the kingdom is(and many don't) it is easier for Satan to plant weeds in our beliefs that spread like wildfire to taint our whole perception of a biblically based reality.Don't be scared to abandon any falsehoods you may have harbored even at the expense of your ego and the embarrassment and regret you might feel for having propagated something untrue for a while.I've been there.
The word of God is alive and exerts unbelievable power over your mind and heart but only if you enter the bible,diving in heartily,with no preconceptions or presuppositions,nothing you have to justify,no belief you have to corroborate at all costs.Don't justify your tradition at the cost of truth.Don't ignore the milk to maintain an elaborate system of inference.If a passage on the surface suggests something in glaring contradiction to the overwhelming and vast majority of plain and simple scriptures,chances are seriously huge that if you interpret those few passages(when they have alternative interpretations worthy of serious consideration) in contradiction to the clear majority,you're self-deceiving.Possibly self-preserving to save ego,face,and emotional investments/attachments.What we must as Christians do is count anything as refuse that doesn't conform to the truth in Christ.And that truth must be established as plain and unambiguous deliberately articulated milk first before the meat of the word can be honestly respectfully regarded.Keeping in mind that John writes with prolepsis and figurative dialogue,even poetry sometimes,and that Paul is occasionally hard to understand and easy to twist,should those be the books we go to to establish our milk OR perhaps to gather meat AFTER we're strong & nourished with milk?Would they logically contradict the truth or are they being twisted,(as Peter prophesied in the case of Paul),& misunderstood to support a triune essence?As opposed to the explicitly articulated God who uses singular personal pronouns thousands of times to elucidate the fact that he's unipersonal.
As a youtube apologist for several years now(I'd like to think I'm currently finished for the most part with futile debates with the same die hard trinitarians and JW's),I have noticed,blazingly so,that certain traditionalist Christians get very offended,hateful even,when challenged.When someone like me points out what I perceive to be their own injustices,lies,bloodguilt,and hypocrisy much like they do the Watchtower's.I have gotten offended and reacted like I shouldn't have before as well so I am not condemning them so much as just trying to make the following points:
DON'T get offended or hateful when your belief system and tradition is challenged if you're going to challenge that of others.Don't ride a high horse and let your ego eradicate truth for you just because you somehow think you alone are immune to deception while the less gifted you enjoy "exposing" somehow aren't..Don't get cruel and verbally abusive if people like me have answers,easy ones,to your reasons for upholding what we perceive are deceitful dangerous lies.You would expect the truth seeking conscientious JW's to listen to you and your concerns without getting hostile and upset,so maybe you should unhypocritically behave how you would expect others to do so.Don't pretend Satan lives in a little box called the WT and that he forgets about your church and the bigger systems.Don't pretend a majority vote equals truth or justice.Don't pretend that because the Watchtower is wrong about a number of things that they're wrong about EVERYTHING.Don't throw the baby out with the bath water and I promise not to do the same.For instance,just because I don't believe in the trinity doesn't mean I'm going to disbelieve every thing traditionalists ever say.Truth is true no matter who delivers it.If Satan says "Jesus's father is the only true God and Jesus is his Son" I'm still going to believe John 17:3 even if Satan corroborates it even though he is wrong about so many other things.
I understand completely that you probably think I'm a tool of Satan for challenging YOUR "truths" ,your established "orthodoxy" and"majority position."I used to think the same of those who challenged MY "truth",MY established "orthodoxy" and definition of that word,MY "minority yet easily true"(or so I thought) position as a former Jehovah's Witness.I simply thought those who didn't recognize the Watchtower as God's channel didn't really know God nor could they be on his side.Then I woke up.Do you think that those who don't adhere to Calvinism(or whatever it is to which you subscribe) don't really know God nor could they be on his side?It is my hope that someday very soon that you will wake up if you're stuck in a similar predicament,not knowing how deceived you really might be.Is it POSSIBLE that the great and powerful Yahuwah doesn't see a great deal of difference in the Watchtower and orthodoxy?Is it POSSIBLE both systems are bruised and corrupt with bloodguilt,injustice,and lies as they battle each other,pretending their truth is better than the other's?Yahushua is truth,not your belief system.Don't take a book as gargantuan as the holy bible and gather texts here and there that anyone with any semblance of intellect could cleverly twist to fit a manmade doctrine or to support one that isn't articulated deliberately.Just read the bible,believe what it says,and when something surface-wise seems to suggest something other than the milk you've established,keep in mind interpreting it in contradiction to that overwhelming majority milk is most likely,logically speaking, highly imprudent,irresponsible even.
The messages within God's word are most extraordinarily beautiful,most exceptionally cohesive,most heartwrenching and incredible,when they are regarded and harbored in love and truth.That's why I don't just preach love,but also true beliefs.Otherwise,the God who wants us to know him remains largely unknown by those who profess a godly devotion that seems genuine yet not according to accurate knowledge.We can all be thankful for any deception we may have upheld *once set free from it* because then it's easier to appreciate the mercy of God for setting captive minds free and the love of God for caring enough to do so,and the truth of God for establishing us in righteousness though it might seem the whole world opposes or distorts the truth that remains most widely available to those who won't be devastated or puffed up by it.Who would value it above all else and sacrifice anything in the entire world for it.The majority of people aren't willing to do that.Truth must be valued above peer approval and tradition.Above tested and tried(or so you think) belief systems and undetected comfortable deceits.Possessing accurate doctrines won't save us but all the distortions & false ones inevitably lead to stumbling millions or more.They will corrupt our path,subvert the faith of many,& ultimately defy God's way of worship in many cases,possibly even rob us of our victory in Christ.Unless the reform knocking at your door is heeded.
Ignoring the lies and such in the larger realm of Christendom while focusing solely on those within the WT would be like trying to kill a rat when there's a vicious tiger or bear in the room.Please try and understand I am coming from the viewpoint of someone who was led TO the WT because of all the lies in Christendom.Thankfully,I have since recognized many problems within the WT as well,while also understanding Satan operates by mixing truth with lies very ardently and meticulously.And not just within the Watchtower and the other "obvious" systems of false ideas.But within the larger ones,Babylon the great and her children, from which Yahuwah pleads for his children to exit.So next time you contemplate condemning the WT,first contemplate where problems may lie within the system you trust.Trust in Yahushua and his father alone.
I'm tired of seeing non-trinitarianism and belief in annihilationism demonized by being associated with the Watchtower organization.As if these basic facts haven't been propagated from the beginning of time.The WT adds a lot of twisted things to the mix,but the fact remains that God is one and God is love.See blog title and bible for proof.And lies in opposition to these basic truths have stumbled far more people than the WT could ever dream of doing.
What it boils down to,and yes it is as simple as this:You're not going to be deceived by any manmade doctrines or false theological systems if you have regard for biblical milk first so that you can recognize the lies on impact.But if you first regard what men tell you(though men can easily lie) and read that INTO the word of God(who cannot lie),while trying to pluck and misuse scripture(though that of course isn't your intent..it's just a natural consequence of your trusting men and their mighty preconceptions they've handed to you)then deceit will inevitably abound and truth will get lost in the shuffle to justify your tradition and cherished position.The trinity doctrine,for instance,is eisegesis in the highest order.A sheer and confounding case of "I know what Jesus says here but I will make it fit what I believe instead because there are a few passages that I'm able to misuse & twist to justify doing so."My friends,that is not the way to truth seek.The few texts you're twisting,just like the few I did to justify believing that I couldn't be in the body of Christ as a former JW,are EASILY seen by minions in another superior way that doesn't eradicate God's word of truth,Yahushua's own unambiguous statements.Those beautiful ones he made of a clear inferiority to a greater God and utter reliance upon that One he himself worshipped and obeyed as the most extraordinary servant of the Shema's One God who ever lived!
Dear Christians against the Watchtower
Christians,the Watchtower,the trinity,and hypocrisy
Now,# 3:
Ever since exiting the Watchtower organization,I've become somewhat hyper-sensitive to the hypocrisy and deception in religious systems.Amazingly enough,those comfortable in their "orthodoxy",however it is they choose to define that,either do not recognize,or deliberately deceive themselves into believing,that only select "cults" or "outside" institutions are steeped in lies and injustice.That they're somehow exempt,completely and utterly content in what they've always been taught,much like those raised as JW's or Muslims or Mormons.Yet they believe only those like the JW's and Catholics have wrong ideas and a history of atrocities.They,much like the WT,justify and excuse their own atrocities ranging from bloodguilt to mass deceit,complacent again,in their peer approved little system and dearly held traditions.Doesn't the bible say that Babylon the Great has children?Could it be those denominations that think they've reformed yet have held on to her greatest "mysteries" & deceits?
I personally think there's a concerning lack of regard for the bible and the milk of the word,for Yahushua's plain and unambiguous words,for the context,larger and smaller,of passages.For the historical reality and thought-forms of the bible authors themselves.This presents fertile breeding ground for lies to grow and deception to flourish.If you find yourself plucking select passages,few and far between,creating false dilemmas,or over-inferring to prove your "essential doctrines",you may have a problem,aware or not.That's what the WT effectively does.Orthodoxy likewise does,imho.You label,possibly even shun,and condemn to your false idea of hell,those who dare to differ.Even as you demonize the JW's for practicing the same.
What do you have to lose?How much do you have invested?How much time,energy,and emotion have you spent to justify your theological belief system or organized group who supposedly "alone" has the "truth"?How much focus has there been on doctrine and comraderie,peer approval and so called orthodoxy?And justifying it all?With sophistry,false dilemmas,deceiving books,and support from those who will help you remain in your deceit?When I used to frequent the Kingdom hall,just like you're probably frequenting some affable gathering,I was surrounded by those who assisted me in my deceit.Does something feel "off?"How often do you read the word?Do you make time to study your belief system(scholars,google,popular books etc.) often in neglect of actually reading the word day and night,as commanded?I used to read so much Watchtower literature that I literally didn't have enough time to study the bible alone like I should have.And when I did,it was through the Watchtower publications' lens just like those in Christendom read it through the lens of their presuppositions and traditions.Reading their own stubborn ideas INTO scripture instead of gleaning truth FROM scripture.
Trust the spirit to lead you to the food you need to nourish your spiritual starvation.Even if we seem to be heart deep,minds set,on spiritual matters,because of the condition in the world and the temptation abounding,we must be OBSESSIVELY inclined toward a kingdom focus.If we don't even know what the kingdom is(and many don't) it is easier for Satan to plant weeds in our beliefs that spread like wildfire to taint our whole perception of a biblically based reality.Don't be scared to abandon any falsehoods you may have harbored even at the expense of your ego and the embarrassment and regret you might feel for having propagated something untrue for a while.I've been there.
The word of God is alive and exerts unbelievable power over your mind and heart but only if you enter the bible,diving in heartily,with no preconceptions or presuppositions,nothing you have to justify,no belief you have to corroborate at all costs.Don't justify your tradition at the cost of truth.Don't ignore the milk to maintain an elaborate system of inference.If a passage on the surface suggests something in glaring contradiction to the overwhelming and vast majority of plain and simple scriptures,chances are seriously huge that if you interpret those few passages(when they have alternative interpretations worthy of serious consideration) in contradiction to the clear majority,you're self-deceiving.Possibly self-preserving to save ego,face,and emotional investments/attachments.What we must as Christians do is count anything as refuse that doesn't conform to the truth in Christ.And that truth must be established as plain and unambiguous deliberately articulated milk first before the meat of the word can be honestly respectfully regarded.Keeping in mind that John writes with prolepsis and figurative dialogue,even poetry sometimes,and that Paul is occasionally hard to understand and easy to twist,should those be the books we go to to establish our milk OR perhaps to gather meat AFTER we're strong & nourished with milk?Would they logically contradict the truth or are they being twisted,(as Peter prophesied in the case of Paul),& misunderstood to support a triune essence?As opposed to the explicitly articulated God who uses singular personal pronouns thousands of times to elucidate the fact that he's unipersonal.
As a youtube apologist for several years now(I'd like to think I'm currently finished for the most part with futile debates with the same die hard trinitarians and JW's),I have noticed,blazingly so,that certain traditionalist Christians get very offended,hateful even,when challenged.When someone like me points out what I perceive to be their own injustices,lies,bloodguilt,and hypocrisy much like they do the Watchtower's.I have gotten offended and reacted like I shouldn't have before as well so I am not condemning them so much as just trying to make the following points:
DON'T get offended or hateful when your belief system and tradition is challenged if you're going to challenge that of others.Don't ride a high horse and let your ego eradicate truth for you just because you somehow think you alone are immune to deception while the less gifted you enjoy "exposing" somehow aren't..Don't get cruel and verbally abusive if people like me have answers,easy ones,to your reasons for upholding what we perceive are deceitful dangerous lies.You would expect the truth seeking conscientious JW's to listen to you and your concerns without getting hostile and upset,so maybe you should unhypocritically behave how you would expect others to do so.Don't pretend Satan lives in a little box called the WT and that he forgets about your church and the bigger systems.Don't pretend a majority vote equals truth or justice.Don't pretend that because the Watchtower is wrong about a number of things that they're wrong about EVERYTHING.Don't throw the baby out with the bath water and I promise not to do the same.For instance,just because I don't believe in the trinity doesn't mean I'm going to disbelieve every thing traditionalists ever say.Truth is true no matter who delivers it.If Satan says "Jesus's father is the only true God and Jesus is his Son" I'm still going to believe John 17:3 even if Satan corroborates it even though he is wrong about so many other things.
I understand completely that you probably think I'm a tool of Satan for challenging YOUR "truths" ,your established "orthodoxy" and"majority position."I used to think the same of those who challenged MY "truth",MY established "orthodoxy" and definition of that word,MY "minority yet easily true"(or so I thought) position as a former Jehovah's Witness.I simply thought those who didn't recognize the Watchtower as God's channel didn't really know God nor could they be on his side.Then I woke up.Do you think that those who don't adhere to Calvinism(or whatever it is to which you subscribe) don't really know God nor could they be on his side?It is my hope that someday very soon that you will wake up if you're stuck in a similar predicament,not knowing how deceived you really might be.Is it POSSIBLE that the great and powerful Yahuwah doesn't see a great deal of difference in the Watchtower and orthodoxy?Is it POSSIBLE both systems are bruised and corrupt with bloodguilt,injustice,and lies as they battle each other,pretending their truth is better than the other's?Yahushua is truth,not your belief system.Don't take a book as gargantuan as the holy bible and gather texts here and there that anyone with any semblance of intellect could cleverly twist to fit a manmade doctrine or to support one that isn't articulated deliberately.Just read the bible,believe what it says,and when something surface-wise seems to suggest something other than the milk you've established,keep in mind interpreting it in contradiction to that overwhelming majority milk is most likely,logically speaking, highly imprudent,irresponsible even.
The messages within God's word are most extraordinarily beautiful,most exceptionally cohesive,most heartwrenching and incredible,when they are regarded and harbored in love and truth.That's why I don't just preach love,but also true beliefs.Otherwise,the God who wants us to know him remains largely unknown by those who profess a godly devotion that seems genuine yet not according to accurate knowledge.We can all be thankful for any deception we may have upheld *once set free from it* because then it's easier to appreciate the mercy of God for setting captive minds free and the love of God for caring enough to do so,and the truth of God for establishing us in righteousness though it might seem the whole world opposes or distorts the truth that remains most widely available to those who won't be devastated or puffed up by it.Who would value it above all else and sacrifice anything in the entire world for it.The majority of people aren't willing to do that.Truth must be valued above peer approval and tradition.Above tested and tried(or so you think) belief systems and undetected comfortable deceits.Possessing accurate doctrines won't save us but all the distortions & false ones inevitably lead to stumbling millions or more.They will corrupt our path,subvert the faith of many,& ultimately defy God's way of worship in many cases,possibly even rob us of our victory in Christ.Unless the reform knocking at your door is heeded.
Ignoring the lies and such in the larger realm of Christendom while focusing solely on those within the WT would be like trying to kill a rat when there's a vicious tiger or bear in the room.Please try and understand I am coming from the viewpoint of someone who was led TO the WT because of all the lies in Christendom.Thankfully,I have since recognized many problems within the WT as well,while also understanding Satan operates by mixing truth with lies very ardently and meticulously.And not just within the Watchtower and the other "obvious" systems of false ideas.But within the larger ones,Babylon the great and her children, from which Yahuwah pleads for his children to exit.So next time you contemplate condemning the WT,first contemplate where problems may lie within the system you trust.Trust in Yahushua and his father alone.
I'm tired of seeing non-trinitarianism and belief in annihilationism demonized by being associated with the Watchtower organization.As if these basic facts haven't been propagated from the beginning of time.The WT adds a lot of twisted things to the mix,but the fact remains that God is one and God is love.See blog title and bible for proof.And lies in opposition to these basic truths have stumbled far more people than the WT could ever dream of doing.
What it boils down to,and yes it is as simple as this:You're not going to be deceived by any manmade doctrines or false theological systems if you have regard for biblical milk first so that you can recognize the lies on impact.But if you first regard what men tell you(though men can easily lie) and read that INTO the word of God(who cannot lie),while trying to pluck and misuse scripture(though that of course isn't your intent..it's just a natural consequence of your trusting men and their mighty preconceptions they've handed to you)then deceit will inevitably abound and truth will get lost in the shuffle to justify your tradition and cherished position.The trinity doctrine,for instance,is eisegesis in the highest order.A sheer and confounding case of "I know what Jesus says here but I will make it fit what I believe instead because there are a few passages that I'm able to misuse & twist to justify doing so."My friends,that is not the way to truth seek.The few texts you're twisting,just like the few I did to justify believing that I couldn't be in the body of Christ as a former JW,are EASILY seen by minions in another superior way that doesn't eradicate God's word of truth,Yahushua's own unambiguous statements.Those beautiful ones he made of a clear inferiority to a greater God and utter reliance upon that One he himself worshipped and obeyed as the most extraordinary servant of the Shema's One God who ever lived!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Christians,the Watchtower,the trinity,and hypocrisy
This is an addendum to my last blog.
What Christians must ask themselves is if when they see the truth spilled from Jesus's mouth do they accept it or read a theological inference into it while modifying it?If they can't hear his unadulterated voice without the noise of men then the truth is squelched.It was squelched for me for a long time because I had a belief system handed to me that I justified with empty sophistry as I gathered and misused a few texts here and there that I proceeded to use to modify the words of Jesus to fit that belief system.I justified this because I accepted the authority of men's supposed sound interpretations that I was scared to question because of what that might mean for my pride and popularity,my salvation even,as I was hounded with the lie that to believe differently from my peers would equal my loss of favor with God and ultimate destruction,my being labelled and considered dead.I really cannot find a whole heap of difference between my experience as a JW and the experience of those who dare question creeds and traditions of men within Christian churches.The truth can stand up to any scrutiny and that should be our quest.When challenged by logic and (biblical)reasoning and Jesus's own words without philosophical sophistry/imposition,do we feel threatened?Do we run everywhere we can to find justification for our belief when it seems to be refuted by plain texts from bible cover to cover?Do we use ambiguous texts or arguments replete with nothing beyond inference to establish a dear tradition?I think the trinity is every bit as stable as 1914 and the JW separation of Christians into 2 classes.It is a preconception garnered from a serious & egregious misuse of a literal few scriptures that leads to a fairy tale "hypostatic union."The misinterpretation of which is read back INTO and imposed upon Yahweh and Jesus's simple words all over scripture,essentially butchering their beautiful true intent.
I've noticed trinitarians feel especially threatened when they are told a body with no Jesus in it wasn't a good enough sacrifice.Jesus *himself* (the person of Christ)had to die,which God defines as a lack of breath and thoughts,as being asleep and silent in a grave.Wonder why that thought in particular might make them get hostile enough to name call,block people online,or boot them from message boards?Perhaps because God can't die(however they falsely define what death means,God still can't die regardless!Jesus STILL wasn't two people so no person actually ever died for them.This is SERIOUSLY unbiblical.)I can only imagine what might happen in an orthodox church if someone kept trying to assert this basic truth,this simple "milk of the word."Yes,Jesus the individual actually perished for 3 whole days.God forbid!Truth seeking voices are silenced with threats to their stance with God.With threats to their salvation.From people they love who seem like sheep,who have a lot of truth and love.But are there lies and hypocrisy in the mix is the question?
Just like JW's,Christians feel safe in their little community,love bombed so to speak,and certainly don't want to lose that.And if they start believing something integral and important that Jesus said that might contradict the cherished traditions of their peers,possibly even their own family,what would this mean for them?Even if they spoke up,left their church(accepting Jesus's unadulterated claims with no philosophical mysterious imposition,again) and were able to keep a few friends and their family despite,wouldn't the judgments,though perhaps more silent and less severe(in a way)than the WT's would be,be almost unbearable?After all,your peers and family have been bombarded with the propaganda and deception that anyone who thinks Jesus is a *made* Lord who has a God who's a separate being are cultist unsaved abominable heretics.We know what happened to those in the past!And that kind of indoctrination(that kind of manipulation of the mind) is powerful,treacherous,unjustified,and pathetic.In my opinion,equalling something similar to the WT's mind control because of how pervasive and insistent it is.Then when we add eternal conscious torment to the mix for not believing manmade dogmas,(which is yet ANOTHER twisting of scripture),we have serious injustice happening to those who dare question popular opinions or blind traditions,much like the WT,again.
My propagating truth and exposing injustice here is in no way a judgment of any individual's salvation.The REAL truth could attract the "cults" and others to a biblically restored true Christianity as opposed to a Hellenized one that perverts truth,that offers no attraction at all to many truth seekers because of its fairy tales,like the trinity,the wrong idea about hell,disembodied souls,and eternal heaven-dwelling.Every Christian needs to fellowship after all,and so those with unorthodox scripturally based beliefs sometimes get lost in cults for lack of fellowshipping options.These people can't in good conscience regularly attend a church where God died and grandma is burning in hell anymore than a Christian could be a JW knowing they can't be born again.Some of the most BASIC MILK OF THE WORD is being squelched in Hellenized Christianity,which causes some people to seek fellowship elsewhere,sometimes even in cults, that DO understand certain biblical basics that the mainstream doesn't.They are then prone to be deceived with lies that are mixed in with some basic truths because that is how Satan operates and entraps those who love God.Orthodoxy,so replete and saturated with a Hellenistic infiltration(ultimately equalling an unwarranted modification of basic biblical truths)has repulsed,even offended,those who ardently desire to keep some of the most basic bible truths,again,the milk of the word,intact.Some of what Hellenized Christianity doesn't propagate that *certain* "cults" might,hence people's attraction to them and being stumbled by Christendom:
1.*Biblical creeds* about God and Christ.
2.The righteous inheriting the earth and living forever upon it.
3.Souls don't live apart from bodies.We are glorified at the *last day* and not before.Death is sleep.Bodies with no people don't sleep.Souls can die.
4.Jesus slept for 3 days before he woke up.A nature is no savior.
5.The wicked perish eternally.Gehenna(hell) clearly consumes.
If a belief is *plainly* stated in scripture as something we must believe,then no councils or killing or threats or torture is needed to enforce it on sincere Christians.Keep this always in mind.I also believe that when Christians tell others who believe Jesus is Messiah and Lord that they will burn alive forever,judging their salvation and stance with God,that what they're doing is not only unwarranted,but also dangerous and boldly arrogant.Unless of course you can find something Jesus or Yahweh said clearly that would condemn people without your added stretch and inference.For goodness sake,educate yourself about gehenna as well.
Hellenized Christianity either repulses some(like JW's and Jews who want to preserve biblical monotheism) or keeps those that embrace it in the throes of a comfortable but insidious deception.Truth is important.And to fellowship TOO closely with those who deny some of Jesus's most basic truths could be dangerous,an entrapment.Remember the Jews in the OT who would cavort with those with false beliefs would oft be corrupted themselves,even as I'm sure they never intended to rebel against truth.The subtle influence of deception is serious.I completely believe that God knows the heart,is ultra merciful and loving and that love can cover a multitude of sin.In other words,I don't know who He will save and who is "saved."That will not stop my propagating of the basic milk of the word though.Nor my trying to wake people up to what constitutes a beautifully restored BIBLICAL Christianity.Love involves advancing truth(Jesus's words)and if I am rejected or labelled or thought of as "dead" because of doing so,then I cannot closely congregate with those so brazen no matter how much I love them.I do not wish to share with them in their deceit even AS I share Jesus's words with them and the danger of false belief systems.I expose Hellenized Christianity for the same reasons they(and I) expose the WT org.Because I love them and want to see them come to the truth.To question their traditions fearlessly and listen to the Lord they love.
Make sure your system of worship isn't a stumbling block as big as the WT's.Read about the history of your beliefs every bit as voraciously as you would like to see a JW read Ray Franz's books.Our goal should be the faith of Abraham,Isaac,Jacob,Jesus,and the apostles,not of *platonically philosophically schooled* Early Church Fathers and councils of men who were egregiously unable to take one single bible verse anywhere to call their creed.And this uninspired man-scripted bloodguilty dogma(the trinity) should not be what,much like the WT literature for the JW,you use to butcher &/or modify Jesus's plain words throughout the NT.Even as you admit Abraham,Isaac,Jacob and the like didn't share your faith in your dogma that you call the most essential to your salvation.Newsflash:Jesus was a Jew and neither did he.Fact is,there are many home churches and humble churches across the US and the world who share my faith who might be called cults by your pulpit propagandist preachers,but assertions are often meritless.Many ex- trinitarians,ex-Modalists and also ex JW's like myself can recognize your propaganda and lies as readily as you do the WT's!And it is my hope that you might come to as well,even as you fearlessly truth seek and heed your conscience qualms over the blind spots in your Pharisaic dogmas and traditions that stumble truth seekers every bit as readily as certain WT beliefs and practices...
Questions worthy of contemplation for those intent on exposing cults for THEIR Pharisaic dogmas:
If you had questions about certain orthodox "essential* doctrines that you found to be,well,questionable,and you let your pastor know,would his reaction(and the ultimate reaction of your "worldwide community of brothers and sisters") belittle your quest for truth in any way or make your stance with God feel threatened by labels and condemnation?Especially if you were to actually heed your "crisis of conscience" while embracing the whole of scripture as a truthful testimony of reality.As opposed to reading something man has written and called a creed *back into* everything you read.If so,how is that any different from what a JW goes through when they have questions about the "mysterious" Watchtower assertions?
Let's *pretend* my brothers and sisters who thought God was,oh,say,*5 people* due to a misunderstanding of scripture in the past proceeded to murder and torture anyone who held a different view of God.Either that,or silence them with banishment and threats and intimidation.Would you be suspicious at all of my belief?If not,why not?Would you at least QUESTION the spirit behind a doctrine that might inspire this kind of rage and insanity?If not,why not?If so,what would this mean if you were to heed your conscience ridden objections about *your* doctrine that inspired the same on a massive scale?How then would the manner in which you'd be treated for listening to your conscience be any less objectionable to how a JW would be treated for heeding theirs?
Next time you criticize the WT society for what it is that your religious system also practices,extract the rafter FIRST.Then perhaps the conscientious JW's might take your objections more seriously.3 individual persons called Yahweh,each 100% God,does not equal one Yahweh.It is WILLFUL self deceit and a denial of basic kindergarten math to say otherwise.It would be like,with a straight face and closed mind,asserting dogmatically and ardently that 1+1+1=1.Then condemning people to a hell that consciously torments ceaselessly unto eternity(Jesus rather preached Gehenna,a fire that CONSUMED so epic fail here for Christians) for not buying it.Ask a child about this.Listen to their honest answer.Then remember Jesus said the kingdom belongs to suchlike ones.Take this math to your pastor and see if he reacts any differently from how an elder would at a kingdom hall if a JW told them Jesus was their mediator,that it's basic bible language and logic that shouldn't be fought.Might be patient at first,but labelling,possibly even shunning,and definitely condemning to some fate much worse than that of the "apostates" from the WT fate awaits supposed "heretics" who know Jesus has a God and adopts John 17:3 and Deut. 6:4 as good enough creeds.Ahh,the irony!(and the hypocrisy.)
God bless everyone and thank you for taking the time to read.
What Christians must ask themselves is if when they see the truth spilled from Jesus's mouth do they accept it or read a theological inference into it while modifying it?If they can't hear his unadulterated voice without the noise of men then the truth is squelched.It was squelched for me for a long time because I had a belief system handed to me that I justified with empty sophistry as I gathered and misused a few texts here and there that I proceeded to use to modify the words of Jesus to fit that belief system.I justified this because I accepted the authority of men's supposed sound interpretations that I was scared to question because of what that might mean for my pride and popularity,my salvation even,as I was hounded with the lie that to believe differently from my peers would equal my loss of favor with God and ultimate destruction,my being labelled and considered dead.I really cannot find a whole heap of difference between my experience as a JW and the experience of those who dare question creeds and traditions of men within Christian churches.The truth can stand up to any scrutiny and that should be our quest.When challenged by logic and (biblical)reasoning and Jesus's own words without philosophical sophistry/imposition,do we feel threatened?Do we run everywhere we can to find justification for our belief when it seems to be refuted by plain texts from bible cover to cover?Do we use ambiguous texts or arguments replete with nothing beyond inference to establish a dear tradition?I think the trinity is every bit as stable as 1914 and the JW separation of Christians into 2 classes.It is a preconception garnered from a serious & egregious misuse of a literal few scriptures that leads to a fairy tale "hypostatic union."The misinterpretation of which is read back INTO and imposed upon Yahweh and Jesus's simple words all over scripture,essentially butchering their beautiful true intent.
I've noticed trinitarians feel especially threatened when they are told a body with no Jesus in it wasn't a good enough sacrifice.Jesus *himself* (the person of Christ)had to die,which God defines as a lack of breath and thoughts,as being asleep and silent in a grave.Wonder why that thought in particular might make them get hostile enough to name call,block people online,or boot them from message boards?Perhaps because God can't die(however they falsely define what death means,God still can't die regardless!Jesus STILL wasn't two people so no person actually ever died for them.This is SERIOUSLY unbiblical.)I can only imagine what might happen in an orthodox church if someone kept trying to assert this basic truth,this simple "milk of the word."Yes,Jesus the individual actually perished for 3 whole days.God forbid!Truth seeking voices are silenced with threats to their stance with God.With threats to their salvation.From people they love who seem like sheep,who have a lot of truth and love.But are there lies and hypocrisy in the mix is the question?
Just like JW's,Christians feel safe in their little community,love bombed so to speak,and certainly don't want to lose that.And if they start believing something integral and important that Jesus said that might contradict the cherished traditions of their peers,possibly even their own family,what would this mean for them?Even if they spoke up,left their church(accepting Jesus's unadulterated claims with no philosophical mysterious imposition,again) and were able to keep a few friends and their family despite,wouldn't the judgments,though perhaps more silent and less severe(in a way)than the WT's would be,be almost unbearable?After all,your peers and family have been bombarded with the propaganda and deception that anyone who thinks Jesus is a *made* Lord who has a God who's a separate being are cultist unsaved abominable heretics.We know what happened to those in the past!And that kind of indoctrination(that kind of manipulation of the mind) is powerful,treacherous,unjustified,and pathetic.In my opinion,equalling something similar to the WT's mind control because of how pervasive and insistent it is.Then when we add eternal conscious torment to the mix for not believing manmade dogmas,(which is yet ANOTHER twisting of scripture),we have serious injustice happening to those who dare question popular opinions or blind traditions,much like the WT,again.
My propagating truth and exposing injustice here is in no way a judgment of any individual's salvation.The REAL truth could attract the "cults" and others to a biblically restored true Christianity as opposed to a Hellenized one that perverts truth,that offers no attraction at all to many truth seekers because of its fairy tales,like the trinity,the wrong idea about hell,disembodied souls,and eternal heaven-dwelling.Every Christian needs to fellowship after all,and so those with unorthodox scripturally based beliefs sometimes get lost in cults for lack of fellowshipping options.These people can't in good conscience regularly attend a church where God died and grandma is burning in hell anymore than a Christian could be a JW knowing they can't be born again.Some of the most BASIC MILK OF THE WORD is being squelched in Hellenized Christianity,which causes some people to seek fellowship elsewhere,sometimes even in cults, that DO understand certain biblical basics that the mainstream doesn't.They are then prone to be deceived with lies that are mixed in with some basic truths because that is how Satan operates and entraps those who love God.Orthodoxy,so replete and saturated with a Hellenistic infiltration(ultimately equalling an unwarranted modification of basic biblical truths)has repulsed,even offended,those who ardently desire to keep some of the most basic bible truths,again,the milk of the word,intact.Some of what Hellenized Christianity doesn't propagate that *certain* "cults" might,hence people's attraction to them and being stumbled by Christendom:
1.*Biblical creeds* about God and Christ.
2.The righteous inheriting the earth and living forever upon it.
3.Souls don't live apart from bodies.We are glorified at the *last day* and not before.Death is sleep.Bodies with no people don't sleep.Souls can die.
4.Jesus slept for 3 days before he woke up.A nature is no savior.
5.The wicked perish eternally.Gehenna(hell) clearly consumes.
If a belief is *plainly* stated in scripture as something we must believe,then no councils or killing or threats or torture is needed to enforce it on sincere Christians.Keep this always in mind.I also believe that when Christians tell others who believe Jesus is Messiah and Lord that they will burn alive forever,judging their salvation and stance with God,that what they're doing is not only unwarranted,but also dangerous and boldly arrogant.Unless of course you can find something Jesus or Yahweh said clearly that would condemn people without your added stretch and inference.For goodness sake,educate yourself about gehenna as well.
Hellenized Christianity either repulses some(like JW's and Jews who want to preserve biblical monotheism) or keeps those that embrace it in the throes of a comfortable but insidious deception.Truth is important.And to fellowship TOO closely with those who deny some of Jesus's most basic truths could be dangerous,an entrapment.Remember the Jews in the OT who would cavort with those with false beliefs would oft be corrupted themselves,even as I'm sure they never intended to rebel against truth.The subtle influence of deception is serious.I completely believe that God knows the heart,is ultra merciful and loving and that love can cover a multitude of sin.In other words,I don't know who He will save and who is "saved."That will not stop my propagating of the basic milk of the word though.Nor my trying to wake people up to what constitutes a beautifully restored BIBLICAL Christianity.Love involves advancing truth(Jesus's words)and if I am rejected or labelled or thought of as "dead" because of doing so,then I cannot closely congregate with those so brazen no matter how much I love them.I do not wish to share with them in their deceit even AS I share Jesus's words with them and the danger of false belief systems.I expose Hellenized Christianity for the same reasons they(and I) expose the WT org.Because I love them and want to see them come to the truth.To question their traditions fearlessly and listen to the Lord they love.
Make sure your system of worship isn't a stumbling block as big as the WT's.Read about the history of your beliefs every bit as voraciously as you would like to see a JW read Ray Franz's books.Our goal should be the faith of Abraham,Isaac,Jacob,Jesus,and the apostles,not of *platonically philosophically schooled* Early Church Fathers and councils of men who were egregiously unable to take one single bible verse anywhere to call their creed.And this uninspired man-scripted bloodguilty dogma(the trinity) should not be what,much like the WT literature for the JW,you use to butcher &/or modify Jesus's plain words throughout the NT.Even as you admit Abraham,Isaac,Jacob and the like didn't share your faith in your dogma that you call the most essential to your salvation.Newsflash:Jesus was a Jew and neither did he.Fact is,there are many home churches and humble churches across the US and the world who share my faith who might be called cults by your pulpit propagandist preachers,but assertions are often meritless.Many ex- trinitarians,ex-Modalists and also ex JW's like myself can recognize your propaganda and lies as readily as you do the WT's!And it is my hope that you might come to as well,even as you fearlessly truth seek and heed your conscience qualms over the blind spots in your Pharisaic dogmas and traditions that stumble truth seekers every bit as readily as certain WT beliefs and practices...
Questions worthy of contemplation for those intent on exposing cults for THEIR Pharisaic dogmas:
If you had questions about certain orthodox "essential* doctrines that you found to be,well,questionable,and you let your pastor know,would his reaction(and the ultimate reaction of your "worldwide community of brothers and sisters") belittle your quest for truth in any way or make your stance with God feel threatened by labels and condemnation?Especially if you were to actually heed your "crisis of conscience" while embracing the whole of scripture as a truthful testimony of reality.As opposed to reading something man has written and called a creed *back into* everything you read.If so,how is that any different from what a JW goes through when they have questions about the "mysterious" Watchtower assertions?
Let's *pretend* my brothers and sisters who thought God was,oh,say,*5 people* due to a misunderstanding of scripture in the past proceeded to murder and torture anyone who held a different view of God.Either that,or silence them with banishment and threats and intimidation.Would you be suspicious at all of my belief?If not,why not?Would you at least QUESTION the spirit behind a doctrine that might inspire this kind of rage and insanity?If not,why not?If so,what would this mean if you were to heed your conscience ridden objections about *your* doctrine that inspired the same on a massive scale?How then would the manner in which you'd be treated for listening to your conscience be any less objectionable to how a JW would be treated for heeding theirs?
Next time you criticize the WT society for what it is that your religious system also practices,extract the rafter FIRST.Then perhaps the conscientious JW's might take your objections more seriously.3 individual persons called Yahweh,each 100% God,does not equal one Yahweh.It is WILLFUL self deceit and a denial of basic kindergarten math to say otherwise.It would be like,with a straight face and closed mind,asserting dogmatically and ardently that 1+1+1=1.Then condemning people to a hell that consciously torments ceaselessly unto eternity(Jesus rather preached Gehenna,a fire that CONSUMED so epic fail here for Christians) for not buying it.Ask a child about this.Listen to their honest answer.Then remember Jesus said the kingdom belongs to suchlike ones.Take this math to your pastor and see if he reacts any differently from how an elder would at a kingdom hall if a JW told them Jesus was their mediator,that it's basic bible language and logic that shouldn't be fought.Might be patient at first,but labelling,possibly even shunning,and definitely condemning to some fate much worse than that of the "apostates" from the WT fate awaits supposed "heretics" who know Jesus has a God and adopts John 17:3 and Deut. 6:4 as good enough creeds.Ahh,the irony!(and the hypocrisy.)
God bless everyone and thank you for taking the time to read.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Dear Christians against the Watchtower
I agree with you.The WT is a tragic false Pharisaic system that hopefully God will bring down even as he wakes up the humble people inside it and brings them to him in Christ.That's my hope,anyway.There are some great humble people in there who love God with everything they have.But my question to Christians is:are you as willing to question your traditions and your books of men and your creeds of men and your bloodguilty history as readily as you demand the Jehovah's Witnesses do theirs?Did you gather your belief system from the bible and the spirit alone or from what you've always been told,your preachers,your tradition,and the books you buy to sell you your doctrines?Calvinists,did you become a Calvinist before you read books with sophistry which gave you a new lens by which you began reading an elaborate theology system INTO the simple and clear words of scripture?
I'm being sincere when I say that even as a child I knew God's son could not be God because he was his son.That may sound simplistic to you and frankly I don't care.Jesus pretty simply told the truth that I was able to gather even then!There's no proof anywhere that Jesus is the same God he worships in the bible except through an elaborate system of man concocted inference similar to that which the WT uses to establish some of their doctrines like a separation of Christians.I harp on the trinity so much because it leads to more deceptions and violates the first commandment.We must all confess Jesus came as a human being as opposed to God with the body and nature of a man but not the person of one.Any other confession frankly scares me since this is the one scripture says must be made.
Since I came out of the WT,I have been somewhat overwhelmed by the hypocrisy within it as well as within Christendom.They both only hypocritically recognize the OTHER'S hypocrisy.It really is discouraging to discern so much deception.It breaks my heart.I spy Christians labelling and shunning and, in the past especially,torturing and killing one another for having a different interpretation of an ancient text.It is these Christians who condemn and label the Watchtower for labelling and shunning and having bloodguilt.In other words,the hypocrisy is palpable,severe.I have been called everything from "Watchtower mind controlled puppet" for recognizing Easter is a pagan goddess to "a poor waif whose home is hell" for believing a man can die according to God's definition of the word.I'm called a "heretic" much more frequently by proud blind Christians than I am "apostate" by proud blind Jehovah's Witnesses.I'm not a born again Christian according to Christians because I don't believe in a creedal triune substance just like I'm not an approved association to Jehovah's Witnesses for not believing the governing body are the faithful and discreet slave whom I must obey.The difference is minute.Christians,you aren't fooling people like me.You may be able to bring other ex Jehovah's Witnesses to your blind belief system after they just escaped another one,but God has prepared me to recognize your deceit even as he led me to recognize the WT's.As someone who has been willing to sacrifice everything I've believed and held onto as my reason for living for over 15 years,I can readily acknowledge that at any time I could be deceived.What I am willing to do is change when I think I am and embrace what I believe to be true no matter what,at any cost!It is more rare than not to find this same willingness to humble ourselves for the sake of Christ.To say "I could be,I may be wrong" instead of "I'm right and that's that,you wicked heretic!"You can show deceived Christians 100 bible creeds about Jesus and God and they still believe one man made up that makes moot of the biblical ones.If that's not deception,then I have no idea what is.
Basically,my purpose for this blog is to ask the orthodox Christians if they understand that their history is more replete with bloodguilt than the WT's?If they know that their creeds and doctrines are as wildly falsely concocted as some of the WT's?If they know that their labelling and shunning and condemning of those who think differently is as treacherous as the WT's?If they understand that their blind traditions and pulpit propaganda and ability to be deceived is every bit as scary as the WT's?If they are as willing to humble themselves and truth seek and leave bloodguilty creeds behind as they demand the Jehovah's Witnesses do?
Keep in mind that when you call people like me HERETICS and WOLVES even though I believe Jesus is the Christ,the Son of the Living God that now images of torture and murder of the worst kind imaginable springs to mind.If that's the kind of witness you want to give,by all means continue.I'm simply encouraging you to be thoughtful and reasonable.And to consider for a moment that perhaps Jesus may not think of me the same way you do.What would that mean for you?And I ask myself the same questions.That's why you don't find me calling individuals heretics and wolves and the like,even though admittedly on occasion I have called doctrines like eternal conscious torment that are frightfully blasphemous "heresies."I have heard testimonies of people like me being booted from Christian message boards for explaining how Jesus died for mankind,instead of just a flesh capsule,a body,with no Jesus in it.This is probably what a pro-JW message board would do to those who dare question their belief system.No difference.Sad,huh?So all of you can tread about pretending there's no hypocrisy in your born again bones as you herald that of others,but you're not fooling some people.As long as you hold with clenched fists and stubborn hearts onto severely bloodguilty creeds and also certain doctrines that blaspheme the very character of God,he can't open your eyes any more than he could a Jehovah's Witnesess's who holds with clenched fists and stubborn hearts onto the belief system they've been handed from others.And because I know there are some humble people in Christendom who love God with everything they have,I have faith he will bring down the churches of men that spread lies like gangrene and save all humble people inside them in Christ.Soon.I have faith He can make that happen.For if you love God,he can work with that.But not if you're Pharisaic in being a little too clingy to your arbitrary condemnations,demands,and dogmas,and perfectly accepting of the bloodguilt your beliefs harbor,demonstrating the spirit behind them.Don't close your eyes.Don't tighten your fists.Don't harden your heart.Don't be a hypocrite.At the very least,next time you witness JW propaganda,unwarranted dogmatisms,evidence of bloodguilt,and blind hypocrisy,remember that your system of worship is super similar.That your condemnation,labelling,shunning,hypocrisy,and bloodguilt is just as off putting and potentially stumbling.
I know someone could easily use the reasoning point that Christianity has produced some terrible fruits but that we can't judge Christianity by that!What I can do though is reason that the KIND or BRAND of Christianity that produced those fruits is rotten and not my Lord's kind and brand.
Oh yes,I've noticed the Christians who condemn Jehovah's Witnesses for being unwilling to question the men they follow are also often unwilling to question the men they follow.Once deception has kicked in it's almost like it's an unstoppable train.Do you know how EASY it is to believe the lies of men who can manipulate words and ideas that are impossible and make them sound plausible? The Watchtower organization does not have the monopoly on corrupt false teachers,deceptive rhetoric and bloodguilt.God never singled out a specific little false prophet organization as being susceptible to deception alone on an island.Do you know how difficult it is to actually understand when you're a slave to tradition that contradicts truth and deceived?If not,ask someone raised a Jehovah's Witness or Muslim who are still a part of it if they have the truth.Don't think it's possible for them to be blinded but not for you.After all,why would you?
Have you ever had a crisis of conscience about your belief?Have you ever recognized that deception is rampant,tenable,and genuinely fierce and hence gotten on your knees and asked God to send measures of his spirit to guide you into all truth about who he really is and who his son really is?Does the thought of questioning your traditions scare you?How about the thought of being labelled a heretic or a cultist or being shunned or treated horrifically by those you love most just because you don't think like they do?Have you ever thought to yourself that your doctrine is replete with sophistry and inference and a lack of any unambiguous declaration of itself in all of scripture?Of how theologians and preachers shamelessly use corrupted or ambiguous texts to support it?Or of how a thought is gathered here and a thought gathered there to shabbily and dishonestly conconct a doctrine explicitly refuted by the Lord and his God?About how men readily think texts applied to Yahweh then to Jesus who was given all power by Yahweh don't have to prove a trinity even when tell you they do?Have you been willing and able to think to yourself that this is the case for many texts applied to many people then applied to Jesus in different separate applications?Are you ready to think for yourself?Are you scared?Does your conscience ever prod you and demand an answer?!Have you thought of the massive history of disgusting bloodguilt associated with your doctrine?You shall know them by their fruits!Somehow Christians make an exception with the fruits of the trinity doctrine though.How dare anyone question the empty statements of well known highly educated book writing scholarly Christians,right?They can make anything in the world they want to sound plausible whether it is or not.And gain supporters.The blind leading the blind..What will your identity become if you lose your status as an orthodox believer and heed your conscience?You aren't fooling me.You've had doubts.You've dismissed them.I'm not saying this to those who've no question the trinity is viable and true blue,who just can't see why it should be questioned on a biblical basis.But to those who have had crises of conscience over it's philosophical concoctions and sophistry.To those who recognize the vacuousness of supposed proofs and heed the leading of the spirit and the calling of Yahweh and Jesus's own creeds.To those who care more about truth than tradition.Jesus than family.Yahweh than creeds.The bible than councils.The scriptures than theologians.The apostles than preachers.Hebrew monotheism than Hellenistic infiltration of it.To those who aren't scared.To those brave like Jesus who would expose the truth in the face of lies as was his duty to do ,heeding his conscience and his God's own spirit that anointed him.You can't fool me.I ignored my conscience qualms for a long time too.I searched for support for the Watchtower lies I'd known because they were comfortable.But God didn't give up on me,and eventually honesty won.Jesus won.His words won.Yahweh wins every time to those who love him above ALL else.Above dogmas.Above popularity and majority opinion and peer approval.Above man's so called wisdom.
This blog was obviously not for those who think their belief system is perfect,secure,and not to be questioned.Not for those who live to expose others' injustices and lies while they excuse their own.Not for those who don't humbly understand the way deception operates.Not for those who have never had a single conscientious issue with their theology system to be sure.So if you're comfortable and think you're immune to being wrong while the WT and other cults like it are the only problem please do not waste your time watching this video.I am not suggesting here that there aren't aspects to the WT that are more controlling than orthodoxy in terms of policies and absolute demands of adherence to every belief,essential or not.But hopefully you will at least be open minded in what I have to say here.God bless.
I'm being sincere when I say that even as a child I knew God's son could not be God because he was his son.That may sound simplistic to you and frankly I don't care.Jesus pretty simply told the truth that I was able to gather even then!There's no proof anywhere that Jesus is the same God he worships in the bible except through an elaborate system of man concocted inference similar to that which the WT uses to establish some of their doctrines like a separation of Christians.I harp on the trinity so much because it leads to more deceptions and violates the first commandment.We must all confess Jesus came as a human being as opposed to God with the body and nature of a man but not the person of one.Any other confession frankly scares me since this is the one scripture says must be made.
Since I came out of the WT,I have been somewhat overwhelmed by the hypocrisy within it as well as within Christendom.They both only hypocritically recognize the OTHER'S hypocrisy.It really is discouraging to discern so much deception.It breaks my heart.I spy Christians labelling and shunning and, in the past especially,torturing and killing one another for having a different interpretation of an ancient text.It is these Christians who condemn and label the Watchtower for labelling and shunning and having bloodguilt.In other words,the hypocrisy is palpable,severe.I have been called everything from "Watchtower mind controlled puppet" for recognizing Easter is a pagan goddess to "a poor waif whose home is hell" for believing a man can die according to God's definition of the word.I'm called a "heretic" much more frequently by proud blind Christians than I am "apostate" by proud blind Jehovah's Witnesses.I'm not a born again Christian according to Christians because I don't believe in a creedal triune substance just like I'm not an approved association to Jehovah's Witnesses for not believing the governing body are the faithful and discreet slave whom I must obey.The difference is minute.Christians,you aren't fooling people like me.You may be able to bring other ex Jehovah's Witnesses to your blind belief system after they just escaped another one,but God has prepared me to recognize your deceit even as he led me to recognize the WT's.As someone who has been willing to sacrifice everything I've believed and held onto as my reason for living for over 15 years,I can readily acknowledge that at any time I could be deceived.What I am willing to do is change when I think I am and embrace what I believe to be true no matter what,at any cost!It is more rare than not to find this same willingness to humble ourselves for the sake of Christ.To say "I could be,I may be wrong" instead of "I'm right and that's that,you wicked heretic!"You can show deceived Christians 100 bible creeds about Jesus and God and they still believe one man made up that makes moot of the biblical ones.If that's not deception,then I have no idea what is.
Basically,my purpose for this blog is to ask the orthodox Christians if they understand that their history is more replete with bloodguilt than the WT's?If they know that their creeds and doctrines are as wildly falsely concocted as some of the WT's?If they know that their labelling and shunning and condemning of those who think differently is as treacherous as the WT's?If they understand that their blind traditions and pulpit propaganda and ability to be deceived is every bit as scary as the WT's?If they are as willing to humble themselves and truth seek and leave bloodguilty creeds behind as they demand the Jehovah's Witnesses do?
Keep in mind that when you call people like me HERETICS and WOLVES even though I believe Jesus is the Christ,the Son of the Living God that now images of torture and murder of the worst kind imaginable springs to mind.If that's the kind of witness you want to give,by all means continue.I'm simply encouraging you to be thoughtful and reasonable.And to consider for a moment that perhaps Jesus may not think of me the same way you do.What would that mean for you?And I ask myself the same questions.That's why you don't find me calling individuals heretics and wolves and the like,even though admittedly on occasion I have called doctrines like eternal conscious torment that are frightfully blasphemous "heresies."I have heard testimonies of people like me being booted from Christian message boards for explaining how Jesus died for mankind,instead of just a flesh capsule,a body,with no Jesus in it.This is probably what a pro-JW message board would do to those who dare question their belief system.No difference.Sad,huh?So all of you can tread about pretending there's no hypocrisy in your born again bones as you herald that of others,but you're not fooling some people.As long as you hold with clenched fists and stubborn hearts onto severely bloodguilty creeds and also certain doctrines that blaspheme the very character of God,he can't open your eyes any more than he could a Jehovah's Witnesess's who holds with clenched fists and stubborn hearts onto the belief system they've been handed from others.And because I know there are some humble people in Christendom who love God with everything they have,I have faith he will bring down the churches of men that spread lies like gangrene and save all humble people inside them in Christ.Soon.I have faith He can make that happen.For if you love God,he can work with that.But not if you're Pharisaic in being a little too clingy to your arbitrary condemnations,demands,and dogmas,and perfectly accepting of the bloodguilt your beliefs harbor,demonstrating the spirit behind them.Don't close your eyes.Don't tighten your fists.Don't harden your heart.Don't be a hypocrite.At the very least,next time you witness JW propaganda,unwarranted dogmatisms,evidence of bloodguilt,and blind hypocrisy,remember that your system of worship is super similar.That your condemnation,labelling,shunning,hypocrisy,and bloodguilt is just as off putting and potentially stumbling.
I know someone could easily use the reasoning point that Christianity has produced some terrible fruits but that we can't judge Christianity by that!What I can do though is reason that the KIND or BRAND of Christianity that produced those fruits is rotten and not my Lord's kind and brand.
Oh yes,I've noticed the Christians who condemn Jehovah's Witnesses for being unwilling to question the men they follow are also often unwilling to question the men they follow.Once deception has kicked in it's almost like it's an unstoppable train.Do you know how EASY it is to believe the lies of men who can manipulate words and ideas that are impossible and make them sound plausible? The Watchtower organization does not have the monopoly on corrupt false teachers,deceptive rhetoric and bloodguilt.God never singled out a specific little false prophet organization as being susceptible to deception alone on an island.Do you know how difficult it is to actually understand when you're a slave to tradition that contradicts truth and deceived?If not,ask someone raised a Jehovah's Witness or Muslim who are still a part of it if they have the truth.Don't think it's possible for them to be blinded but not for you.After all,why would you?
Have you ever had a crisis of conscience about your belief?Have you ever recognized that deception is rampant,tenable,and genuinely fierce and hence gotten on your knees and asked God to send measures of his spirit to guide you into all truth about who he really is and who his son really is?Does the thought of questioning your traditions scare you?How about the thought of being labelled a heretic or a cultist or being shunned or treated horrifically by those you love most just because you don't think like they do?Have you ever thought to yourself that your doctrine is replete with sophistry and inference and a lack of any unambiguous declaration of itself in all of scripture?Of how theologians and preachers shamelessly use corrupted or ambiguous texts to support it?Or of how a thought is gathered here and a thought gathered there to shabbily and dishonestly conconct a doctrine explicitly refuted by the Lord and his God?About how men readily think texts applied to Yahweh then to Jesus who was given all power by Yahweh don't have to prove a trinity even when tell you they do?Have you been willing and able to think to yourself that this is the case for many texts applied to many people then applied to Jesus in different separate applications?Are you ready to think for yourself?Are you scared?Does your conscience ever prod you and demand an answer?!Have you thought of the massive history of disgusting bloodguilt associated with your doctrine?You shall know them by their fruits!Somehow Christians make an exception with the fruits of the trinity doctrine though.How dare anyone question the empty statements of well known highly educated book writing scholarly Christians,right?They can make anything in the world they want to sound plausible whether it is or not.And gain supporters.The blind leading the blind..What will your identity become if you lose your status as an orthodox believer and heed your conscience?You aren't fooling me.You've had doubts.You've dismissed them.I'm not saying this to those who've no question the trinity is viable and true blue,who just can't see why it should be questioned on a biblical basis.But to those who have had crises of conscience over it's philosophical concoctions and sophistry.To those who recognize the vacuousness of supposed proofs and heed the leading of the spirit and the calling of Yahweh and Jesus's own creeds.To those who care more about truth than tradition.Jesus than family.Yahweh than creeds.The bible than councils.The scriptures than theologians.The apostles than preachers.Hebrew monotheism than Hellenistic infiltration of it.To those who aren't scared.To those brave like Jesus who would expose the truth in the face of lies as was his duty to do ,heeding his conscience and his God's own spirit that anointed him.You can't fool me.I ignored my conscience qualms for a long time too.I searched for support for the Watchtower lies I'd known because they were comfortable.But God didn't give up on me,and eventually honesty won.Jesus won.His words won.Yahweh wins every time to those who love him above ALL else.Above dogmas.Above popularity and majority opinion and peer approval.Above man's so called wisdom.
This blog was obviously not for those who think their belief system is perfect,secure,and not to be questioned.Not for those who live to expose others' injustices and lies while they excuse their own.Not for those who don't humbly understand the way deception operates.Not for those who have never had a single conscientious issue with their theology system to be sure.So if you're comfortable and think you're immune to being wrong while the WT and other cults like it are the only problem please do not waste your time watching this video.I am not suggesting here that there aren't aspects to the WT that are more controlling than orthodoxy in terms of policies and absolute demands of adherence to every belief,essential or not.But hopefully you will at least be open minded in what I have to say here.God bless.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Trinitarian reasoning is dangerous!(5 proofs)
2 Tim. 4:3-4:the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
I DO NOT believe the trinitarian reasoning I use in this video to establish some scary ideas.I'm simply using their OWN reasoning to demonstrate what the result would be were they consistent.If these 5 arguments are so easily refutable,perhaps it would be worth your while to investigate every one of them meticulously so as to make sure you haven't been misled.The "hypostatic union"(which is sadly,for trinitarians, nothing but a bold & empty inference) is read INTO every text and it's basis is every bit as tragically gathered from a misuse of a literal few texts as the Jehovah's Witnesses' establishment of 1914 and their separation of Christians is!If Christians are so willing to use these types of arguments even after being biblically reasoned with,then how can you trust anything they say?If trinitarians can't even be honest about simple reasoning points then there's not much that CAN be said.I will plant seeds that hopefully might make the conscientious reconsider what they've been fed regardless.God bless everyone.:)
For reasoning refuting the hypostatic union,read my Philippians ch. 2 and John 1:1 blogs under "trinity texts" to the right.Thanks everyone.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
I DO NOT believe the trinitarian reasoning I use in this video to establish some scary ideas.I'm simply using their OWN reasoning to demonstrate what the result would be were they consistent.If these 5 arguments are so easily refutable,perhaps it would be worth your while to investigate every one of them meticulously so as to make sure you haven't been misled.The "hypostatic union"(which is sadly,for trinitarians, nothing but a bold & empty inference) is read INTO every text and it's basis is every bit as tragically gathered from a misuse of a literal few texts as the Jehovah's Witnesses' establishment of 1914 and their separation of Christians is!If Christians are so willing to use these types of arguments even after being biblically reasoned with,then how can you trust anything they say?If trinitarians can't even be honest about simple reasoning points then there's not much that CAN be said.I will plant seeds that hopefully might make the conscientious reconsider what they've been fed regardless.God bless everyone.:)
For reasoning refuting the hypostatic union,read my Philippians ch. 2 and John 1:1 blogs under "trinity texts" to the right.Thanks everyone.
Monday, October 4, 2010
What is the Gospel?Where's the true Kingdom of God in your preaching?
Examine:
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
I've no doubt this is part of the gospel,but should it be to the exclusion of Jesus's main gospel?
Luke 4:43:“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Let's examine the historical and biblical context of these Corinthians passages to help us determine if the truth of Jesus's death and resurrection is all we should preach.To quote Anthony Buzzard from his book "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew":
"The point at issue in the Corinthian letter was the resurrection of Jesus which some of the Corinthians were beginning to doubt.--"How do some among you say there is no resurrection from the dead?"(1 Cor. 15:12)In response to this particular crisis in belief,Paul reminds his audience that the death and resurrection of Jesus are of absolutely fundamental significance in the Christian gospel.Without the death of Jesus to gain forgiveness for all of us,and without his return from death to life through resurrection,there can be no hope of salvation in the coming Kingdom.The Gospel of the Kingdom is nullified if in fact Jesus has not been raised from the dead."p.326
Further,Buzzard says:
"The Corinthians had already accepted that belief(in the Kingdom of God)as part of the Gospel of salvation.Thus Paul is able to elaborate on the already understood doctrine of the Kingdom only a few verses later.Having just mentioned the future coming of Jesus(1 Cor. 15:23),he speaks of the kingdom over which Jesus will preside at his coming.(verses 25-27)."p. 326
Christians should not be isolating these Corinthians passages out of context as the sole Christian message because the theme of the bible is ALSO the kingdom of God,from Genesis to Revelation.
The ground was cursed and the tree of life was off limits to Adam who brought death upon himself and every man via sin,rebellion,and disobedience.(Gen. 3:17,24,Rom. 5:12)The Last Adam(Jesus the Christ) via faithfulness,obedience and love for Yahweh his father and his God(John 20:17) restored everything the first Adam lost.(Rom. 5:19,1 John 3:8,Heb. 1:9,1 Cor. 15:22,Rev. 21:1-4,22:2)Since this is the message from Genesis to Revelation,then we should be preaching it just as Jesus and the apostles did with vigor and determination to follow Jesus's footsteps closely,to give hope to mankind!(1 Pet. 2:21,2 Peter 3:13)The message of Jesus's death and resurrection without the promise of a heavenly kingdom on a new earth in the future,at the Last Day when Jesus returns from heaven with his rewards,(Acts 3:21,Rev. 22:12) is missing a key INTEGRAL component.For that was the whole purpose for Jesus's death and resurrection!To impute righteousness to faithful mankind so that they may inherit the earth and dwell forever upon it in peace and bliss.
Psalm 37:29:The upright will have the earth for their heritage, and will go on living there for ever.
Psalm 72:7:In his days may the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace till the moon is no more. 8:May he also rule from sea to sea And from the River to the ends of the earth
Matt. 5:5: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
How could Christians possibly miss this biblical theme and promise as an essential preaching tool to bring disciples to Jesus,the king of the upcoming eternal kingdom?It's pretty devastating when you think about it.
On one hand ,we have the Jehovah's Witnesses who faithfully proclaim a new earth for humanity while at the same time denying that all Christians have this hope(144,000 will be disembodied heaven dwellers),and that to have the hope at all,those within their organization must obey a few men who are anointed and born again while the rank and file simply cannot be.(John 3:3,Eph. 2:15-22,4:5)Satan has entered the picture and tainted it with deception!On the other hand,we have orthodox Christians who faithfully(well,some of them) proclaim that we become disembodied immortal spirits at death while we fly off to heaven.And that the resurrection isn't of actual people but simply,well,"dust."Essentially transferring the hope for mankind to something far removed from a genuine resurrection at the LAST DAY that was the true hope of every single biblical believer,as opposed to a glorification and inheritance LONG BEFORE.(1 Cor. 15:52,1 Thes. 4:16,2 Tim. 4:6-8,Heb. 11:40,Acts 2:34)Again,Satan has entered the picture and tainted it with relentless deception.
Abraham was to look all around him at his inheritance that he saw afar off but with eyes of faith knew would come to fruition.(Heb. 11:8-10)He wasn't commanded to look UP to the sky because he would inhabit the same residence as those made to be angels and heavenly beings.This SAME hope for Abraham was prepared in heaven,and is being still,(John 14:3)for Abraham's offspring,heirs of the SAME PROMISE,a new earth.(Matt. 6:10)This truth is so far removed from modern Christian thoughtforms that it's downright astounding.
Genesis 13:14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
Galatians 3:29:And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you.
Romans 15:8: For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs
"The promise made to Abram(Gen. 12:1-4) provides the bedrock foundation for God's subsequent dealings with mankind.The Christian faith is incomprehensible when divorced from the divine oath of promise which formed the basis of God's covenant or contract with Abraham(Gen. 15:18),justly called "the father of the faithful"(Rom. 4:1,11,12,16).As Paul the apostle remarked,the Christian good news(or gospel) of salvation had been preached in advance to Abraham.(Gal. 3:8)God's dealings with Abraham forge a link between the patriarchs and the Christian faith as taught by Jesus,uniting the story of the Bible in a coherent whole."p.21 "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew" by Anthony Buzzard
The hope of Christians is the same hope Abraham had,again,to inherit the land..north,south,east,and west!And to have dominion over Paradise.:)We will be sitting at that same kingdom table,feasting with Jesus and the OT patriarchs(Matt 8:11),who again weren't promised to reside in heaven but to inherit a new earth,a kingdom from heaven,a heavenly kingdom.Anything that comes from God could be described as Godly or heavenly.Anything with it's origin from God in the heavens could be said to be heavenly.
Daniel 7:27: And the kingdom and the dominion
and the greatness of the kingdoms UNDER the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,
Hebrews 2:5: Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world(the land,or earth) to come, of which we are speaking.
We were made MEN and WOMEN by God,to inherit a new earth(if faithful) from heaven,under heaven.He made angels and the like for a different purpose,a different glory.I don't see anything good in scripture coming from anyone desiring to reside where they weren't created to reside or to be who they weren't created to be.(Gen. 6:1-7)Paul scoffed at the idea of disembodiment and his hope was for a CLOTHING at the Last Day.(2 Cor. 5:2-4)Logically,this means he never wanted to be a disembodied spirit creature or to inherit immortality before the Last Day.(2 Tim. 4:6-8,Heb. 11:40)How could this be missed by the majority of modern Christianity?
God will descend to dwell amongst men(whether that's literal or not would be conjecture on my part since he can dwell in people and amongst people without LITERALLY stepping down.) New Jerusalem DESCENDS to the earth after being prepared in heaven..In other words,we don't fly away to live in heaven with God and New Jerusalem doesn't ASCEND.As propounded from biblical cover to cover,our eyes on the prize should be a transfigured land,a transformed heavenly earth,even as we place our hope in heaven from whence our blessings will descend.(Rev. 21:2,3)
"The gospel records of our Lord's life and teaching DO NOT SPEAK of going to heaven,as a modern believer so naturally does.Rather the emphasis is on that which is "heavenly" coming down to man...Our modern way of speaking of life with God as being life "in heaven" is not the way the gospels speak of the matter."----William Strawson "Jesus and the Future Life" p. 38
I appreciate the way Anthony Buzzard words it in his book when he articulates what the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus WITHOUT the true kingdom message involved means:
"The loss of Christianity's central point may be likened to a team hoping to go to the moon.They decide that they need a launching pad and a spaceship in order to realize their dream.After they have acquired the necessary equipment for the journey,they forget what it was they needed the equipment for.Their interest in the pad and the spaceship remains,but the trip to the moon is forgotten.
In NT Christianity the prospect of a place in the future Kingdom of God provides the stimulus to the whole Christian venture.The death and resurrection of Jesus make possible the believer's hope for a share in that kingdom.Grasping the nature of the hope is the first step to be taken by the disciple.Belief in Jesus provides the way to the goal and guarantees its ultimate realization.
In contemporary presentations of the "Gospel" people are being asked to "believe in Jesus," in the absence of a clear idea of what Jesus stands for.They are not exposed to Jesus' Message about the kingdom,which he preached long before he spoke of his death and resurrection.The situation is comparable to a political campaign in which a candidate appeals for support before the voters know what his manifesto is.It is difficult to express intelligent faith in Jesus unless one understands what Jesus meant by his "News about the kingdom"--the gospel as Jesus proclaimed it."pp.338-339 "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew"
The disciples asked:
Acts 1:6:“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
No one should doubt that the disciples knew what the kingdom was,where it is going to be,and what their inheritance was!If Jesus preached the kingdom constantly along with his apostles,is anyone REALLY to believe they didn't know what it was?Jesus didn't rebuke them for their definition of it but simply for trying to know the times and seasons that only his father knew.They were eager for that land promised to Abraham!Why exactly are the best known theologians,the majority of preachers,the every day Christians oblivious to these basic bible truths?Well,there are many reasons,but I'll espouse one,as quoted in Anthony's book:
"Like all concepts the meaning of religious terms is changed with a changing experience and a changing world view.Transplanted into the Greek world view,inevitably the Christian teaching was modified--indeed tranformed...Jewish presuppositions tended to disappear.Especially were the MESSIANIC hopes forgotten or transferred to a transcendent sphere beyond death.When the empire became Christian in the 4th century,the notion of a Kingdom of Christ on earth to be introduced by a great struggle all but disappeared.Immortality--the philosophical conception--took the place of the resurrection of the body....As thus the background has changed from Jewish to Greek,so are the fundamental religious conceptions..We have thus a peculiar combination--the religious doctrines of the bible run through the forms of an alien philosophy."--G.W Knox(professor of philosophy and the history of religion) Encyclopedia Britannica 11th ed. vol. 6 p. 284
Basically,what is obvious to me and noted by too many scholars and experts past and present to count,modern Christianity has divorced biblical revelation from it's Jewish context,it's Messianic hopes,and imposed upon scripture Greek philosophical concepts that simply aren't really present at all,except through egregious misuse of scripture and a blind denial of clear texts.
"The NT speaks always of disapproval and usually with blunt denunciation of Gentile cults and philosophies.It agrees essentially with the Jewish indictment of the pagan world...The modern church often misunderstands its relation to the OT and Israel,and often inclines to prefer the Greek attitude to the NT view."--F.V. Filson,The New Testament Against Its Environment,pp.26,27,43
Again,to exclude the bible's hope from Genesis to Revelation,a restored renewed earth,from our gospel is an injustice to the message,creating a truncated one.
What God begins and ends his holy book with should demand attention and proclamation!
Genesis 2:9:And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.(KJV)
compare with
Revelation 22:2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
FINALLY God's purpose for man fulfilled..from the first book to the last,at last his kingdom come,the heavenly government where blessings will flow from the heavens to the earth and we can only imagine the gifts to come!
Ecclesiastes 3:11:It is beautiful how God has done everything at the right time. He has put a sense of eternity in people's minds. Yet, mortals still can't grasp what God is doing from the beginning to the end [of time]
That's one integral reason why we must declare: "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"(Mark 1:15)
Romans 10:16“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Preach the Lord,his death,resurrection and the purpose for it!The Kingdom of Yahweh and His Christ.
Revelation 11:15:“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Daniel 2:44:the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever
"How different the churches might be if they ceased trying to fit Jesus into a traditional Greek philosophically-influenced straitjacket and presented him as the Jewish Messiah and savior of the world,offering his followers something far beyond promises of "heaven"--as a disembodied soul!...The Bible,if read as a Messianic document,tells a thrilling story of a gracious Creator's intention to rescue our planet and restore permanent peace and security for all nations."p.12 "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew" by Anthony Buzzard
Christians should be able to properly define death(because if they can't do that then naturally our real hope at the Last Day will be transferred and all but ignored) and God's kingdom,to recognize where our hope for immortality and glorification REALLY lies and when..at Christ's return and not prior..Generally,they're not.It's inexcusable and tragic.Their reliance on and utter trust in their blind leaders and tradition is every bit as disconcerting as the Jehovah's Witnesses'.Some of Christendom's false doctrines like hell,automatic immortality of a soul,and the trinity have led many astray TO religions like Judaism with no Messiah,the WT society,even atheism.Their bloodguilt is profound.I'm not condemning individual Christians just like I'm not condemning individual JW's..I'm simply appalled at certain systems and certain Greek philosophically influenced and saturated doctrines within them that have strayed from the truth and refuse to be properly reformed.Because they think they already are.
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
I've no doubt this is part of the gospel,but should it be to the exclusion of Jesus's main gospel?
Luke 4:43:“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Let's examine the historical and biblical context of these Corinthians passages to help us determine if the truth of Jesus's death and resurrection is all we should preach.To quote Anthony Buzzard from his book "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew":
"The point at issue in the Corinthian letter was the resurrection of Jesus which some of the Corinthians were beginning to doubt.--"How do some among you say there is no resurrection from the dead?"(1 Cor. 15:12)In response to this particular crisis in belief,Paul reminds his audience that the death and resurrection of Jesus are of absolutely fundamental significance in the Christian gospel.Without the death of Jesus to gain forgiveness for all of us,and without his return from death to life through resurrection,there can be no hope of salvation in the coming Kingdom.The Gospel of the Kingdom is nullified if in fact Jesus has not been raised from the dead."p.326
Further,Buzzard says:
"The Corinthians had already accepted that belief(in the Kingdom of God)as part of the Gospel of salvation.Thus Paul is able to elaborate on the already understood doctrine of the Kingdom only a few verses later.Having just mentioned the future coming of Jesus(1 Cor. 15:23),he speaks of the kingdom over which Jesus will preside at his coming.(verses 25-27)."p. 326
Christians should not be isolating these Corinthians passages out of context as the sole Christian message because the theme of the bible is ALSO the kingdom of God,from Genesis to Revelation.
The ground was cursed and the tree of life was off limits to Adam who brought death upon himself and every man via sin,rebellion,and disobedience.(Gen. 3:17,24,Rom. 5:12)The Last Adam(Jesus the Christ) via faithfulness,obedience and love for Yahweh his father and his God(John 20:17) restored everything the first Adam lost.(Rom. 5:19,1 John 3:8,Heb. 1:9,1 Cor. 15:22,Rev. 21:1-4,22:2)Since this is the message from Genesis to Revelation,then we should be preaching it just as Jesus and the apostles did with vigor and determination to follow Jesus's footsteps closely,to give hope to mankind!(1 Pet. 2:21,2 Peter 3:13)The message of Jesus's death and resurrection without the promise of a heavenly kingdom on a new earth in the future,at the Last Day when Jesus returns from heaven with his rewards,(Acts 3:21,Rev. 22:12) is missing a key INTEGRAL component.For that was the whole purpose for Jesus's death and resurrection!To impute righteousness to faithful mankind so that they may inherit the earth and dwell forever upon it in peace and bliss.
Psalm 37:29:The upright will have the earth for their heritage, and will go on living there for ever.
Psalm 72:7:In his days may the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace till the moon is no more. 8:May he also rule from sea to sea And from the River to the ends of the earth
Matt. 5:5: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
How could Christians possibly miss this biblical theme and promise as an essential preaching tool to bring disciples to Jesus,the king of the upcoming eternal kingdom?It's pretty devastating when you think about it.
On one hand ,we have the Jehovah's Witnesses who faithfully proclaim a new earth for humanity while at the same time denying that all Christians have this hope(144,000 will be disembodied heaven dwellers),and that to have the hope at all,those within their organization must obey a few men who are anointed and born again while the rank and file simply cannot be.(John 3:3,Eph. 2:15-22,4:5)Satan has entered the picture and tainted it with deception!On the other hand,we have orthodox Christians who faithfully(well,some of them) proclaim that we become disembodied immortal spirits at death while we fly off to heaven.And that the resurrection isn't of actual people but simply,well,"dust."Essentially transferring the hope for mankind to something far removed from a genuine resurrection at the LAST DAY that was the true hope of every single biblical believer,as opposed to a glorification and inheritance LONG BEFORE.(1 Cor. 15:52,1 Thes. 4:16,2 Tim. 4:6-8,Heb. 11:40,Acts 2:34)Again,Satan has entered the picture and tainted it with relentless deception.
Abraham was to look all around him at his inheritance that he saw afar off but with eyes of faith knew would come to fruition.(Heb. 11:8-10)He wasn't commanded to look UP to the sky because he would inhabit the same residence as those made to be angels and heavenly beings.This SAME hope for Abraham was prepared in heaven,and is being still,(John 14:3)for Abraham's offspring,heirs of the SAME PROMISE,a new earth.(Matt. 6:10)This truth is so far removed from modern Christian thoughtforms that it's downright astounding.
Genesis 13:14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
Galatians 3:29:And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you.
Romans 15:8: For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs
"The promise made to Abram(Gen. 12:1-4) provides the bedrock foundation for God's subsequent dealings with mankind.The Christian faith is incomprehensible when divorced from the divine oath of promise which formed the basis of God's covenant or contract with Abraham(Gen. 15:18),justly called "the father of the faithful"(Rom. 4:1,11,12,16).As Paul the apostle remarked,the Christian good news(or gospel) of salvation had been preached in advance to Abraham.(Gal. 3:8)God's dealings with Abraham forge a link between the patriarchs and the Christian faith as taught by Jesus,uniting the story of the Bible in a coherent whole."p.21 "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew" by Anthony Buzzard
The hope of Christians is the same hope Abraham had,again,to inherit the land..north,south,east,and west!And to have dominion over Paradise.:)We will be sitting at that same kingdom table,feasting with Jesus and the OT patriarchs(Matt 8:11),who again weren't promised to reside in heaven but to inherit a new earth,a kingdom from heaven,a heavenly kingdom.Anything that comes from God could be described as Godly or heavenly.Anything with it's origin from God in the heavens could be said to be heavenly.
Daniel 7:27: And the kingdom and the dominion
and the greatness of the kingdoms UNDER the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,
Hebrews 2:5: Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world(the land,or earth) to come, of which we are speaking.
We were made MEN and WOMEN by God,to inherit a new earth(if faithful) from heaven,under heaven.He made angels and the like for a different purpose,a different glory.I don't see anything good in scripture coming from anyone desiring to reside where they weren't created to reside or to be who they weren't created to be.(Gen. 6:1-7)Paul scoffed at the idea of disembodiment and his hope was for a CLOTHING at the Last Day.(2 Cor. 5:2-4)Logically,this means he never wanted to be a disembodied spirit creature or to inherit immortality before the Last Day.(2 Tim. 4:6-8,Heb. 11:40)How could this be missed by the majority of modern Christianity?
God will descend to dwell amongst men(whether that's literal or not would be conjecture on my part since he can dwell in people and amongst people without LITERALLY stepping down.) New Jerusalem DESCENDS to the earth after being prepared in heaven..In other words,we don't fly away to live in heaven with God and New Jerusalem doesn't ASCEND.As propounded from biblical cover to cover,our eyes on the prize should be a transfigured land,a transformed heavenly earth,even as we place our hope in heaven from whence our blessings will descend.(Rev. 21:2,3)
"The gospel records of our Lord's life and teaching DO NOT SPEAK of going to heaven,as a modern believer so naturally does.Rather the emphasis is on that which is "heavenly" coming down to man...Our modern way of speaking of life with God as being life "in heaven" is not the way the gospels speak of the matter."----William Strawson "Jesus and the Future Life" p. 38
I appreciate the way Anthony Buzzard words it in his book when he articulates what the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus WITHOUT the true kingdom message involved means:
"The loss of Christianity's central point may be likened to a team hoping to go to the moon.They decide that they need a launching pad and a spaceship in order to realize their dream.After they have acquired the necessary equipment for the journey,they forget what it was they needed the equipment for.Their interest in the pad and the spaceship remains,but the trip to the moon is forgotten.
In NT Christianity the prospect of a place in the future Kingdom of God provides the stimulus to the whole Christian venture.The death and resurrection of Jesus make possible the believer's hope for a share in that kingdom.Grasping the nature of the hope is the first step to be taken by the disciple.Belief in Jesus provides the way to the goal and guarantees its ultimate realization.
In contemporary presentations of the "Gospel" people are being asked to "believe in Jesus," in the absence of a clear idea of what Jesus stands for.They are not exposed to Jesus' Message about the kingdom,which he preached long before he spoke of his death and resurrection.The situation is comparable to a political campaign in which a candidate appeals for support before the voters know what his manifesto is.It is difficult to express intelligent faith in Jesus unless one understands what Jesus meant by his "News about the kingdom"--the gospel as Jesus proclaimed it."pp.338-339 "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew"
The disciples asked:
Acts 1:6:“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
No one should doubt that the disciples knew what the kingdom was,where it is going to be,and what their inheritance was!If Jesus preached the kingdom constantly along with his apostles,is anyone REALLY to believe they didn't know what it was?Jesus didn't rebuke them for their definition of it but simply for trying to know the times and seasons that only his father knew.They were eager for that land promised to Abraham!Why exactly are the best known theologians,the majority of preachers,the every day Christians oblivious to these basic bible truths?Well,there are many reasons,but I'll espouse one,as quoted in Anthony's book:
"Like all concepts the meaning of religious terms is changed with a changing experience and a changing world view.Transplanted into the Greek world view,inevitably the Christian teaching was modified--indeed tranformed...Jewish presuppositions tended to disappear.Especially were the MESSIANIC hopes forgotten or transferred to a transcendent sphere beyond death.When the empire became Christian in the 4th century,the notion of a Kingdom of Christ on earth to be introduced by a great struggle all but disappeared.Immortality--the philosophical conception--took the place of the resurrection of the body....As thus the background has changed from Jewish to Greek,so are the fundamental religious conceptions..We have thus a peculiar combination--the religious doctrines of the bible run through the forms of an alien philosophy."--G.W Knox(professor of philosophy and the history of religion) Encyclopedia Britannica 11th ed. vol. 6 p. 284
Basically,what is obvious to me and noted by too many scholars and experts past and present to count,modern Christianity has divorced biblical revelation from it's Jewish context,it's Messianic hopes,and imposed upon scripture Greek philosophical concepts that simply aren't really present at all,except through egregious misuse of scripture and a blind denial of clear texts.
"The NT speaks always of disapproval and usually with blunt denunciation of Gentile cults and philosophies.It agrees essentially with the Jewish indictment of the pagan world...The modern church often misunderstands its relation to the OT and Israel,and often inclines to prefer the Greek attitude to the NT view."--F.V. Filson,The New Testament Against Its Environment,pp.26,27,43
Again,to exclude the bible's hope from Genesis to Revelation,a restored renewed earth,from our gospel is an injustice to the message,creating a truncated one.
What God begins and ends his holy book with should demand attention and proclamation!
Genesis 2:9:And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.(KJV)
compare with
Revelation 22:2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
FINALLY God's purpose for man fulfilled..from the first book to the last,at last his kingdom come,the heavenly government where blessings will flow from the heavens to the earth and we can only imagine the gifts to come!
Ecclesiastes 3:11:It is beautiful how God has done everything at the right time. He has put a sense of eternity in people's minds. Yet, mortals still can't grasp what God is doing from the beginning to the end [of time]
That's one integral reason why we must declare: "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"(Mark 1:15)
Romans 10:16“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Preach the Lord,his death,resurrection and the purpose for it!The Kingdom of Yahweh and His Christ.
Revelation 11:15:“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Daniel 2:44:the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever
"How different the churches might be if they ceased trying to fit Jesus into a traditional Greek philosophically-influenced straitjacket and presented him as the Jewish Messiah and savior of the world,offering his followers something far beyond promises of "heaven"--as a disembodied soul!...The Bible,if read as a Messianic document,tells a thrilling story of a gracious Creator's intention to rescue our planet and restore permanent peace and security for all nations."p.12 "Our fathers who aren't in heaven:the forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew" by Anthony Buzzard
Christians should be able to properly define death(because if they can't do that then naturally our real hope at the Last Day will be transferred and all but ignored) and God's kingdom,to recognize where our hope for immortality and glorification REALLY lies and when..at Christ's return and not prior..Generally,they're not.It's inexcusable and tragic.Their reliance on and utter trust in their blind leaders and tradition is every bit as disconcerting as the Jehovah's Witnesses'.Some of Christendom's false doctrines like hell,automatic immortality of a soul,and the trinity have led many astray TO religions like Judaism with no Messiah,the WT society,even atheism.Their bloodguilt is profound.I'm not condemning individual Christians just like I'm not condemning individual JW's..I'm simply appalled at certain systems and certain Greek philosophically influenced and saturated doctrines within them that have strayed from the truth and refuse to be properly reformed.Because they think they already are.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Home Churches in 1st century Christianity
Some great insight into how the first Christians REALLY congregated and conducted themselves.This should be beneficial to everyone,but of course being a former Jehovah's Witness,I am hoping they especially will consider this information.Because possibly more than any other group they boast of their perfect adherence to 1st century regulations in regards to Christian gatherings,realities,and conduct when nothing could be further from the truth.
Monday, June 14, 2010
7 ways Jehovah's Witnesses and Christians are alike
Please understand I am not judging JW's or orthodox Christians' eternal salvation!God is love, and one of the most important things in the world IS LOVE.Love even covers a multitude of sin,so I'll let GOD,the great reader of hearts,judge everyone through Christ.What I am doing is declaring the truth as I've found it & exposing error where I perceive it because I know how the truth sets us free and that's what Christ would have done..tell the truth and lay bear the error,bringing every thought into captivity to his.(the youtubes are below if you'd rather watch those than read all this.)
1st similarity:They will label you with horrible names like "heretic" and "apostate" if you don't fully accept their traditions of men no matter what you may show them in scripture that refutes their traditions.
One example for each group..If you show a trinitarian how Jesus confirmed the Shema as HIS statement of faith,as a truth that still stands,as one of the most important things a man can know,and if that trinitarian knows that the Jews of old who didn't have the "full revelation" of the trinity to whom this truth was first given knew that the father was that ONE YAHWEH,is anyone really to believe the truth has changed and that that ONE YAHWEH for the Jews is now three for the Christians?If you show a trinitarian Jesus said WE worship what WE know(John 4:22-24),including himself as a Jew who worshipped the God of the Shema,they will excuse that as a "nature speaking" though there was no such qualification from our Lord.Since Jesus had a God and still apparently does,(Ephesians 1:3)there's no reason whatsoever to believe that HIS God exists in the very same Lord Jesus himself was made.(Acts 2:36)If believing what Jesus said in John 17:3 makes me a heretic then I wear that title proudly.And if you tell Jehovah's Witness that there's no reason to label someone just because they left an organization but still happen to love and serve Yahweh,still happen to believe Jesus is the Christ,but knows now a corporation isn't a savior and men can be questioned,they of course will still call you apostate and think you're scum because you don't think God's channel is a billion dollar a year publishing entity who has false prophecied repeatedly,harboring bloodguilt, with no seeming remorse.So,again,these two groups will name call and sometimes shun for unbiblical reasons though they both claim that God is our judge.
2nd similarity:They have listened to mere men's exegesis of the Lord's words instead of simply believing the Lord's words.They have let men color or erase altogether the Lord's words of truth.They have let men tell them "what Jesus meant" instead of simply listening to what Jesus actually said when there is good reason to just let Jesus speak without any imposition of theories about what he "meant."For example..I'll once again give just one example a piece for each group:
At
John 3:3: Jesus said to him(Nicodemus): “Most truly I say to you, Unless anyone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
There's no qualification here,Jehovah's Witnesses.Listen to Jesus!
and for Christians:Jesus said at:
John 17:3:This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.
There's no qualification here Christians!In other words,no evidence all of Christ wasn't present in his words ,including those of his declarations in other texts of inferiority and of not knowing everything,as opposed to just 100 of his "200 percent" being present in much of what he declared.Someone who doesn't know everything who calls his father the only one truly God,distinguishing himself from that One as being the one that One "sent forth" is clearly neither omniscient nor the True God.Do you REALLY think those listening thought that Jesus had just there declared that he was the second of three persons who individually is "True God" yet also 1/3 of the entirety of the same True God he said his father was the only one of?If you think so,I would say that's one of the most far fetched and ridiculous notions I have simply ever heard.
3rd similarity:They believe certain far fetched theological theories and base entire doctrines upon those simply because they have misused a literal few texts and then proceeded to let their misuse of those few texts color their interpretation of every thing else they see in scripture.Instead of letting everything else they see in scripture simply mean what it says without any imposition of preconceived theological biases changing the meaning of those scriptures to make them fit that far fetched theological theory,sometimes called a "mystery,"(which reminds me of Babylon the Great) and sometimes called "new light" even though Christ the true light never changes HIS truth.
For example:The JW's believe there are two groups who will be separated eternally ,one on earth and the other in heaven lording it over those on earth.This is mainly because of a misuse of the texts about "little flock"(Luke 12:32) and "other sheep."(John 10:16) who they think are the heavenly and the earthly class,but they're REALLY the Jews and the Gentiles.Also based on a misuse of Revelation ch 7 where they say the 144,000 has to be literal,with no good basis in a symbolic book,failing to understand that the great crowd may very well be the 144,000 because "spiritual Israel,"who the tribes may symbolize, is composed of every tribe,tongue,people and nation,yes,the great crowd.Why not consider the possibility that perhaps this symbolic number has what it represents explained right afterward,as if oft the case with symbols in revelation!Keep in mind,JW's,that the heavenly kingdom can simply be the "new earth" because Heaven will descend TO it and it will belong to God in heaven,a heavenly kingdom,a "new earth."I could go on and on, but I will instead refer you to my 3 part series "Are there 2 separate hopes for Christians?"Check them out if you can.There are a few possible interpretations of Revelation ch 7 but suffice it to say the WT one is an IMPOSSIBLE one.Don't believe me?Read Ephesians 2:14-17 and tell me what you think about what is said of the two groups(the little flock and other sheep,aka the Jews and Gentiles) in those.
Now for the Christians..they base their Godman theory on what they call the "hypostatic union" which they claim is expressed in a literal few texts like Colossians 2:9 where it says Christ had God's fullness and hence they say he was "fully God" which somehow inexplicably leads to "the second person of a triune substance."This argument is weak given that Christians may be "filled up to all the fullness of God."(Ephesians 3:19)Christ has the fullness because God was in him reconciling the world unto him self (2 Corinthians 5:19),by means of His spirit,(John 3:34)working fully through him!(Acts 2:22)Another one of the few they use to support this "hypostatic union" is Philippians 2:6 and 7 where Christ ,although he existed in God's form emptied himself and took the form of a slave.First of all,"form" is synonymous with "image" and can't prove anything but that Jesus ISN'T the same God his father is because he was rather that one's image and "form."Have YOU ever heard of someone in another's image who also partakes of the "substance" of the one they're the image OF?
Zeisler noted in "Pauline Christianity":Christ,like Adam,was the image of God,but unlike Adam did not regard equality with God a matter of grabbing(a prize to be snatched).Unlike Adam,he voluntarily accepted servanthood and mortality.
Yes,Philippians is distingushing the Last Adam from the first Adam(who was also made in God's image) in that Christ obeyed and humbled himself under God unlike the first who rebelled and thought he might become "like God."Clearly,God sent his son, and that is the one who humbled himself unto death,a FULLY FLESH man,able to be tempted and able to die.True God is NOT the Last Adam.The one True God made Lord(Acts 2:36) and firstborn(Psalm 89:27) is the Last Adam.One of 2 "natures" of God's Son is not the Last Adam.The ENTIRETY of God's beloved Son was the Last Adam.That firstborn beloved Son of God did not harbor another nature on top of his flesh one,though he did have God's spirit fully working through him without measure so that he could reveal God's personality and will to us fully.The bible says those who don't confess Christ came in the flesh(it doesn't say in the flesh and also another nature on top of it!) are antichrists.So to confess Christ came in the flesh with no further natures added to that would be the appropriate confession.Any other confession is to be condemned.(as inference,manmade)
4th similarity:Often enough,they both think THEIR version of the "good news" excludes any other possibility of what the "good news" might also encompass.Either that or they think THEIR "good news" is somehow superior to others'.
For example,Christians sometimes think the good news is the death and resurrection of the Christ and seem to get all defensive when JW's say that the good news is the kingdom of God and the restoration of the earth to Paradisaic conditions.JW's seem to get defensive when Christians say the good news is the death and resurrection of Christ and the freedom we can find in him.BOTH are correct..so why not just admit that proclaiming the kingdom of God and Christ's resurrection and freedom BOTH are wonderful Christian things to declare!Don't get me wrong.I am not advocating JW's advancement of 1914 and an eternal separation of Christians OR the Christian advancement that Jesus was alive while he was supposed to be dead and the resurrection of nothing but a "body" devoid of Christ as "good news."(see my video "Did Jesus really die for trinitarians for more information.)I'm simply saying that the genuine death and resurrection of our Lord and the restoration of the earth with a rule from the heavens over it are all "good news!"These should be proclaimed by all who call themselves Christian because they are all called good news in the bible!All through his ministry Jesus preached the kingdom,which didn't transfer from the earthly hope the OT Jews were promised to a flying away to heaven for Christians.It was the SAME Kingdom promised the Jews that the Christians will also see.(Acts 1:6)All through the book of Acts the disciples preached the death and resurrection as good news.Embrace it all.
5th similarity:They both seem to oft times think that IF in their religious institution or organization or tradition there is some sound truth that that somehow means men who taught them these truths must have everything right.All or nothing.
When I was a Jehovah's Witness,I thought since they knew basic fundamental truths about the soul's ability to die,the wicked actually perishing as opposed to be preserved alive in flames for all of eternity,Jesus's father being the only true God ..etc..and that since they seemed to basically be some of the only ones who actually knew this,that these men must have special knowledge I should embrace.That's where deception kicked in and I started believing what they said about OTHER things that WEREN'T true because they knew so many basic truths that the world seemed to not understand.I get the feeling that orthodox Christians,when they listen to compelling sermons from people like Paul Washer and the like,in which there is MUCH truth,that they are compelled emotionally and even intellectually to believe everything people like Paul Washer say.Because Paul Washer preaches a lot of truth.Unfortunately,a little leaven can ferment the whole lump.And there is leaven in both the WT organization and in orthodox Christianity that remains unrecognized by those who profess to be of these faiths because listening to sometimes charismatic or even humble,meek teachers and preachers can be a deceiving,even if only partially deceiving,business.The whole world is lying in Satan's power and is under his deception..not just the WT society.Examine all things.
6th similarity:They have both let men who have gathered together in Ecumenical councils or in closed secretive quarters in a publishing building in NYC determine their statements of faith instead of,again,listening to what the Lord and his God who made that one our Lord(Acts 2:36)actually say in succint and irrefutable BIBLICAL statements that SHOULD be our faith statements.
For example,a JW should be able to say and believe what Jesus taught in his unqualified declarations like those found in :
John 6:53 Accordingly Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day;(Jesus gave no hint that he was only talking a few privileged ones in the WT society as opposed to every Christian who would read his powerful words)
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus,(no reason men should be able to qualify and nullify this for JW's..ALSO no reason trinitarians should believe the mediator existed in the same "being" as the ONE GOD(Deut 6:4) who he is distinguished from in this text,again)
Now the Nicene Creed confesses that Christ is "True God from True God" in direct and alarming violation of John 17:3 where Jesus says his father is the only True God.I will oft hear certain trinitarians use Early Church fathers' writings as evidence for what is true even though the ones they cite in general were philosophically and Platonically schooled and certainly didn't believe exactly the same as modern day trinitarians.Even the Nicene Creed is ambiguous in its declaration of what the holy spirit might be!God warned us of men's traditions and philosophies.Apostasy was ALREADY present in the first century.Would it be far fetched to say those from a Greek culture might naturally impose their Hellenistic thought onto the Hebrew texts with time?Tradition is powerful.Tradition can blind.It doesn't always cater to the facts.
What I would recommend would be to take succint explicit texts that tell us who God and Christ are like John 17:3,1 Corinthians 8:5,6,1 Timothy 2:5,John 20:17,Ephesians 1:3(etc.!)..instead of building an elaborate system of inference to proclaim something that is never explicitly declared anywhere in all of scripture.I would also recommend not using terminology like "substance" and "triune" to define God when scripture doesn't if you're "sola scriptura." Again,cite the texts that explain who God and Christ are as your creed.Why aren't they good enough?I saw one video on youtube called "The Jesus creed" where many texts were given that were about Jesus,with positively NONE defining a triune God.Because there aren't any.
Going into this thought a little more...the
7th similarity is that they both have doctrines based upon elaborate theological systems of interpretation and INFERENCE that cannot be gathered from any explicit statement in scripture but rather only from preconceived impositions upon many texts they use together to invent a concept they think is sound in spite of it not being succintly taught or defined in scripture,oft times using unbiblical language to define their doctrines that are foreign to scripture,except through this system of severe and unwarranted, sometimes even blatantly philosophical, imposed terminology & bold inference.
To better articulate what I'm talking about here,listen to Patrick Navas,author of "Divine truth or human tradition:A Reconsideration of the Roman Catholic-Protestant Doctrine of the Trinity in Light of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures" on a radio debate Six screens of the Watchtower set up between him and Brian Garcia,aka "newagegamer" on youtube.(link below for debate)
http://www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/isot-call-6-20-09.html
To quote him:
"I did associate with the Witnesses to some extent but never joined the organization.One of the major reasons that prevented me from committing myself to that community even though I felt there was a lot of good there..I never became persuaded that what they teach about the doctrine of 1914,which is a very complicated interpretational formula that's arrived at in a very similar way that trinitarians basically approach the subject of the trinity.The point that I'm making is that in a similar sense what the witnesses are basically saying is you have to believe that Jesus has been invisibly present since the year 1914 which they arrive at through this extremely complicated interpretive formula,and they connect a wide variety of verses and statements interpreted in a certain way that all gives in their minds credence to this belief..and it's something that they consider essential and that in fact you can believe all the things that the bible says but if you don't agree with them on this particular formula relating to chronology in their minds you can't really be accepted as a true Christian.You're disqualified from true Christian status in their thinking.In a very similar way,the trinitarians are basically saying "look you cannnot be accepted as a true Christian"..you're disqualified for not accepting something that ISN'T EVER discussed or even mentioned in the scripture but is a "doctrinal formula" that is basically something that is arrived at through a very complex process of inference and interpretation.It's not something that's straightforward in the scriptures.If it was,then people who believed the scriptures would never..there'd be no reason to question it.And that's why I don't question doctrines like Jesus is the Messiah or that God raised him from the dead or that God is love..simply because those teachings are directly and clearly articulated whereas the doctrine of the trinity is just simply not in that category of things that the scripture deliberately presents to us.In a similar way,I don't accept the trinitarian conclusion.Neither do I accept the 1914 doctrine of the Witnesses.What I've seen in my studies..the practice of basically saying you must accept a doctrinal formula in order to be saved is just a difficult & in my opinion IMMODEST thing to do when the scripture already tells us explicitly what we have to believe to come to a true,a good relationship with God."
Amen Patrick.Well said.
1st similarity:They will label you with horrible names like "heretic" and "apostate" if you don't fully accept their traditions of men no matter what you may show them in scripture that refutes their traditions.
One example for each group..If you show a trinitarian how Jesus confirmed the Shema as HIS statement of faith,as a truth that still stands,as one of the most important things a man can know,and if that trinitarian knows that the Jews of old who didn't have the "full revelation" of the trinity to whom this truth was first given knew that the father was that ONE YAHWEH,is anyone really to believe the truth has changed and that that ONE YAHWEH for the Jews is now three for the Christians?If you show a trinitarian Jesus said WE worship what WE know(John 4:22-24),including himself as a Jew who worshipped the God of the Shema,they will excuse that as a "nature speaking" though there was no such qualification from our Lord.Since Jesus had a God and still apparently does,(Ephesians 1:3)there's no reason whatsoever to believe that HIS God exists in the very same Lord Jesus himself was made.(Acts 2:36)If believing what Jesus said in John 17:3 makes me a heretic then I wear that title proudly.And if you tell Jehovah's Witness that there's no reason to label someone just because they left an organization but still happen to love and serve Yahweh,still happen to believe Jesus is the Christ,but knows now a corporation isn't a savior and men can be questioned,they of course will still call you apostate and think you're scum because you don't think God's channel is a billion dollar a year publishing entity who has false prophecied repeatedly,harboring bloodguilt, with no seeming remorse.So,again,these two groups will name call and sometimes shun for unbiblical reasons though they both claim that God is our judge.
2nd similarity:They have listened to mere men's exegesis of the Lord's words instead of simply believing the Lord's words.They have let men color or erase altogether the Lord's words of truth.They have let men tell them "what Jesus meant" instead of simply listening to what Jesus actually said when there is good reason to just let Jesus speak without any imposition of theories about what he "meant."For example..I'll once again give just one example a piece for each group:
At
John 3:3: Jesus said to him(Nicodemus): “Most truly I say to you, Unless anyone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
There's no qualification here,Jehovah's Witnesses.Listen to Jesus!
and for Christians:Jesus said at:
John 17:3:This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.
There's no qualification here Christians!In other words,no evidence all of Christ wasn't present in his words ,including those of his declarations in other texts of inferiority and of not knowing everything,as opposed to just 100 of his "200 percent" being present in much of what he declared.Someone who doesn't know everything who calls his father the only one truly God,distinguishing himself from that One as being the one that One "sent forth" is clearly neither omniscient nor the True God.Do you REALLY think those listening thought that Jesus had just there declared that he was the second of three persons who individually is "True God" yet also 1/3 of the entirety of the same True God he said his father was the only one of?If you think so,I would say that's one of the most far fetched and ridiculous notions I have simply ever heard.
3rd similarity:They believe certain far fetched theological theories and base entire doctrines upon those simply because they have misused a literal few texts and then proceeded to let their misuse of those few texts color their interpretation of every thing else they see in scripture.Instead of letting everything else they see in scripture simply mean what it says without any imposition of preconceived theological biases changing the meaning of those scriptures to make them fit that far fetched theological theory,sometimes called a "mystery,"(which reminds me of Babylon the Great) and sometimes called "new light" even though Christ the true light never changes HIS truth.
For example:The JW's believe there are two groups who will be separated eternally ,one on earth and the other in heaven lording it over those on earth.This is mainly because of a misuse of the texts about "little flock"(Luke 12:32) and "other sheep."(John 10:16) who they think are the heavenly and the earthly class,but they're REALLY the Jews and the Gentiles.Also based on a misuse of Revelation ch 7 where they say the 144,000 has to be literal,with no good basis in a symbolic book,failing to understand that the great crowd may very well be the 144,000 because "spiritual Israel,"who the tribes may symbolize, is composed of every tribe,tongue,people and nation,yes,the great crowd.Why not consider the possibility that perhaps this symbolic number has what it represents explained right afterward,as if oft the case with symbols in revelation!Keep in mind,JW's,that the heavenly kingdom can simply be the "new earth" because Heaven will descend TO it and it will belong to God in heaven,a heavenly kingdom,a "new earth."I could go on and on, but I will instead refer you to my 3 part series "Are there 2 separate hopes for Christians?"Check them out if you can.There are a few possible interpretations of Revelation ch 7 but suffice it to say the WT one is an IMPOSSIBLE one.Don't believe me?Read Ephesians 2:14-17 and tell me what you think about what is said of the two groups(the little flock and other sheep,aka the Jews and Gentiles) in those.
Now for the Christians..they base their Godman theory on what they call the "hypostatic union" which they claim is expressed in a literal few texts like Colossians 2:9 where it says Christ had God's fullness and hence they say he was "fully God" which somehow inexplicably leads to "the second person of a triune substance."This argument is weak given that Christians may be "filled up to all the fullness of God."(Ephesians 3:19)Christ has the fullness because God was in him reconciling the world unto him self (2 Corinthians 5:19),by means of His spirit,(John 3:34)working fully through him!(Acts 2:22)Another one of the few they use to support this "hypostatic union" is Philippians 2:6 and 7 where Christ ,although he existed in God's form emptied himself and took the form of a slave.First of all,"form" is synonymous with "image" and can't prove anything but that Jesus ISN'T the same God his father is because he was rather that one's image and "form."Have YOU ever heard of someone in another's image who also partakes of the "substance" of the one they're the image OF?
Zeisler noted in "Pauline Christianity":Christ,like Adam,was the image of God,but unlike Adam did not regard equality with God a matter of grabbing(a prize to be snatched).Unlike Adam,he voluntarily accepted servanthood and mortality.
Yes,Philippians is distingushing the Last Adam from the first Adam(who was also made in God's image) in that Christ obeyed and humbled himself under God unlike the first who rebelled and thought he might become "like God."Clearly,God sent his son, and that is the one who humbled himself unto death,a FULLY FLESH man,able to be tempted and able to die.True God is NOT the Last Adam.The one True God made Lord(Acts 2:36) and firstborn(Psalm 89:27) is the Last Adam.One of 2 "natures" of God's Son is not the Last Adam.The ENTIRETY of God's beloved Son was the Last Adam.That firstborn beloved Son of God did not harbor another nature on top of his flesh one,though he did have God's spirit fully working through him without measure so that he could reveal God's personality and will to us fully.The bible says those who don't confess Christ came in the flesh(it doesn't say in the flesh and also another nature on top of it!) are antichrists.So to confess Christ came in the flesh with no further natures added to that would be the appropriate confession.Any other confession is to be condemned.(as inference,manmade)
4th similarity:Often enough,they both think THEIR version of the "good news" excludes any other possibility of what the "good news" might also encompass.Either that or they think THEIR "good news" is somehow superior to others'.
For example,Christians sometimes think the good news is the death and resurrection of the Christ and seem to get all defensive when JW's say that the good news is the kingdom of God and the restoration of the earth to Paradisaic conditions.JW's seem to get defensive when Christians say the good news is the death and resurrection of Christ and the freedom we can find in him.BOTH are correct..so why not just admit that proclaiming the kingdom of God and Christ's resurrection and freedom BOTH are wonderful Christian things to declare!Don't get me wrong.I am not advocating JW's advancement of 1914 and an eternal separation of Christians OR the Christian advancement that Jesus was alive while he was supposed to be dead and the resurrection of nothing but a "body" devoid of Christ as "good news."(see my video "Did Jesus really die for trinitarians for more information.)I'm simply saying that the genuine death and resurrection of our Lord and the restoration of the earth with a rule from the heavens over it are all "good news!"These should be proclaimed by all who call themselves Christian because they are all called good news in the bible!All through his ministry Jesus preached the kingdom,which didn't transfer from the earthly hope the OT Jews were promised to a flying away to heaven for Christians.It was the SAME Kingdom promised the Jews that the Christians will also see.(Acts 1:6)All through the book of Acts the disciples preached the death and resurrection as good news.Embrace it all.
5th similarity:They both seem to oft times think that IF in their religious institution or organization or tradition there is some sound truth that that somehow means men who taught them these truths must have everything right.All or nothing.
When I was a Jehovah's Witness,I thought since they knew basic fundamental truths about the soul's ability to die,the wicked actually perishing as opposed to be preserved alive in flames for all of eternity,Jesus's father being the only true God ..etc..and that since they seemed to basically be some of the only ones who actually knew this,that these men must have special knowledge I should embrace.That's where deception kicked in and I started believing what they said about OTHER things that WEREN'T true because they knew so many basic truths that the world seemed to not understand.I get the feeling that orthodox Christians,when they listen to compelling sermons from people like Paul Washer and the like,in which there is MUCH truth,that they are compelled emotionally and even intellectually to believe everything people like Paul Washer say.Because Paul Washer preaches a lot of truth.Unfortunately,a little leaven can ferment the whole lump.And there is leaven in both the WT organization and in orthodox Christianity that remains unrecognized by those who profess to be of these faiths because listening to sometimes charismatic or even humble,meek teachers and preachers can be a deceiving,even if only partially deceiving,business.The whole world is lying in Satan's power and is under his deception..not just the WT society.Examine all things.
6th similarity:They have both let men who have gathered together in Ecumenical councils or in closed secretive quarters in a publishing building in NYC determine their statements of faith instead of,again,listening to what the Lord and his God who made that one our Lord(Acts 2:36)actually say in succint and irrefutable BIBLICAL statements that SHOULD be our faith statements.
For example,a JW should be able to say and believe what Jesus taught in his unqualified declarations like those found in :
John 6:53 Accordingly Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day;(Jesus gave no hint that he was only talking a few privileged ones in the WT society as opposed to every Christian who would read his powerful words)
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus,(no reason men should be able to qualify and nullify this for JW's..ALSO no reason trinitarians should believe the mediator existed in the same "being" as the ONE GOD(Deut 6:4) who he is distinguished from in this text,again)
Now the Nicene Creed confesses that Christ is "True God from True God" in direct and alarming violation of John 17:3 where Jesus says his father is the only True God.I will oft hear certain trinitarians use Early Church fathers' writings as evidence for what is true even though the ones they cite in general were philosophically and Platonically schooled and certainly didn't believe exactly the same as modern day trinitarians.Even the Nicene Creed is ambiguous in its declaration of what the holy spirit might be!God warned us of men's traditions and philosophies.Apostasy was ALREADY present in the first century.Would it be far fetched to say those from a Greek culture might naturally impose their Hellenistic thought onto the Hebrew texts with time?Tradition is powerful.Tradition can blind.It doesn't always cater to the facts.
What I would recommend would be to take succint explicit texts that tell us who God and Christ are like John 17:3,1 Corinthians 8:5,6,1 Timothy 2:5,John 20:17,Ephesians 1:3(etc.!)..instead of building an elaborate system of inference to proclaim something that is never explicitly declared anywhere in all of scripture.I would also recommend not using terminology like "substance" and "triune" to define God when scripture doesn't if you're "sola scriptura." Again,cite the texts that explain who God and Christ are as your creed.Why aren't they good enough?I saw one video on youtube called "The Jesus creed" where many texts were given that were about Jesus,with positively NONE defining a triune God.Because there aren't any.
Going into this thought a little more...the
7th similarity is that they both have doctrines based upon elaborate theological systems of interpretation and INFERENCE that cannot be gathered from any explicit statement in scripture but rather only from preconceived impositions upon many texts they use together to invent a concept they think is sound in spite of it not being succintly taught or defined in scripture,oft times using unbiblical language to define their doctrines that are foreign to scripture,except through this system of severe and unwarranted, sometimes even blatantly philosophical, imposed terminology & bold inference.
To better articulate what I'm talking about here,listen to Patrick Navas,author of "Divine truth or human tradition:A Reconsideration of the Roman Catholic-Protestant Doctrine of the Trinity in Light of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures" on a radio debate Six screens of the Watchtower set up between him and Brian Garcia,aka "newagegamer" on youtube.(link below for debate)
http://www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/isot-call-6-20-09.html
To quote him:
"I did associate with the Witnesses to some extent but never joined the organization.One of the major reasons that prevented me from committing myself to that community even though I felt there was a lot of good there..I never became persuaded that what they teach about the doctrine of 1914,which is a very complicated interpretational formula that's arrived at in a very similar way that trinitarians basically approach the subject of the trinity.The point that I'm making is that in a similar sense what the witnesses are basically saying is you have to believe that Jesus has been invisibly present since the year 1914 which they arrive at through this extremely complicated interpretive formula,and they connect a wide variety of verses and statements interpreted in a certain way that all gives in their minds credence to this belief..and it's something that they consider essential and that in fact you can believe all the things that the bible says but if you don't agree with them on this particular formula relating to chronology in their minds you can't really be accepted as a true Christian.You're disqualified from true Christian status in their thinking.In a very similar way,the trinitarians are basically saying "look you cannnot be accepted as a true Christian"..you're disqualified for not accepting something that ISN'T EVER discussed or even mentioned in the scripture but is a "doctrinal formula" that is basically something that is arrived at through a very complex process of inference and interpretation.It's not something that's straightforward in the scriptures.If it was,then people who believed the scriptures would never..there'd be no reason to question it.And that's why I don't question doctrines like Jesus is the Messiah or that God raised him from the dead or that God is love..simply because those teachings are directly and clearly articulated whereas the doctrine of the trinity is just simply not in that category of things that the scripture deliberately presents to us.In a similar way,I don't accept the trinitarian conclusion.Neither do I accept the 1914 doctrine of the Witnesses.What I've seen in my studies..the practice of basically saying you must accept a doctrinal formula in order to be saved is just a difficult & in my opinion IMMODEST thing to do when the scripture already tells us explicitly what we have to believe to come to a true,a good relationship with God."
Amen Patrick.Well said.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Christmas
How bringing our holy Lord's name into something THIS disgusting,repulsive and demonic is acceptable to so many who claim to be Christian is BEYOND ME.The times for such willful ignorance and trying to wrap disgusting things in pretty packages is OVER.Quit touching the unclean thing.Be no part of the world.You can't drink from the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons.Satan keeps disguising himself as an angel of light and too many are buying it.Bringing Christ's name into this unabashed filth is UNACCEPTABLE imo.
Oh and another point,do you think there is a POSSIBILITY that Jehovah had to emphasize his being ONE because of the triune gods people worshipped all through history?Do you think it is POSSIBLE that he may,in fact,be one as opposed to triune,which means three?Unless you think God is deceptive(and he's not!),he is ,in fact,one,not three in one,because he never said he was three in one or even gave a hint that he might be!Let's face it..the bible is HUGE..certainly large enough for him to have somewhere stated his triunity if it were so because,again,he loves to be truthful and clear about who he is so that we may worship him in truth.He is love,after all.And those who say that the holy spirit reveals his triunity and not the bible so much(yes I've been told this) then how come Jehovah,through that SAME holy spirit, wouldn't reveal it in the bible?And if it was,there certainly would've been no need for a creed that redefined son of God into true God from true God.After all,that's two true Gods.And we know Jehovah is THE SOLE true God,for his son Jesus told us so.As if Jehovah hadn't already.One means one.Son means son.And the trinity is lie.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
9 big lies in Christianity
I've been through these lies before but since the key and core doctrines of christendom are based upon these I feel it is important to emphasize BIBLICAL christianity.As opposed to Platonic or Papal or Creedal "christianity".
**Lie # 1:Death is the separation of the soul from the body.Souls never die.
*Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die
*Ezekial 18:4 :Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
*Psalm 146:4 His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.(spirit is "breath of life" like that which Jah gave Adam in order to be animate..that which can be restored upon resurrection)
*Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.(hell=gehenna(in this instance),where everything is burned up,consumed,annihilated)
*Matthew 9:23-25, John 11:11-14, Jeremiah 51:39, Acts 7:60-sleeping(IF the soul is alive burning or in heaven,then why a need for a resurrection at all or a FUTURE judgment day at all?Wouldn't the soul burning alive or existing in heaven dictate that a judgment has ALREADY been made?Wouldn't all the people who were resurrected in the word of God at least have mentioned the torment or bliss they had been brought back from?And wouldn't it have been intolerable cruelty to bring someone back from their "home with God?")
**Lie # 2:God is three persons.
*Deuteronomy 6:4 (New International Version)
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one
Footnotes:
Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The LORD our God is one LORD; or The LORD is our God, the LORD is one ; or The LORD is our God, the LORD alone
*Deuteronomy 32:39:there is no God besides Me(as opposed to "US")
*Isaiah 37:16:You are God, You alone(as opposed to "you are God..you three alone "OR "You three are God alone")
*Isaiah 43:10-11:Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me(as opposed to "there is no God but us and we are three.")
*Isaiah 46:9:I am God, and there is no other(as opposed to "I am God and there are two others")
*John 5:44:How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? (as opposed to "the only God who I am 1/3 of")
*James 2:19:You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe -- and tremble!(as opposed to "one God,three persons")
*1 Corinthians 8:4:Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one(as opposed to three)
*Jude 1:24:the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord(as opposed to the three personed god our savior,through one of the persons in the same God)
*Matthew 16:15 He said to them: “you, though, who do you say I am?” 16 In answer Simon Peter said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”(as opposed to "You are God the son,coequal and cosubstantial with God the father,one hundred percent God on top of one hundred percent man,and sometimes you let your human nature trump your God nature when you don't know certain things and when the human will is different from your "God will" then the human will sometimes wins because well,why wouldn't it?)
*John 17:3: This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.(as opposed to "taking in knowledge of you ,the only true God which includes the Lord I am about to mention in the same God I just mentioned.)
Sadly,I could go on forever.
**Lie # 3:Those before the throne have to be in heaven.And they can't be on earth because God is with them!(from revelation 7:9,which I think pertains to those on earth who survive the great tribulation)
The greek word translated "before" is enopion and means "in the sight of" and is used several times of humans on earth who are "before" or "in the sight of" Jehovah(from Revelation book,a WTBTS publication)
*Romans 14:22: The faith that you have, have it in accord with yourself in the sight of God. Happy is the man that does not put himself on judgment by what he approves.
*Galatians 1:20: Now as to the things I am writing you, look! in the sight of God, I am not lying.
I would venture so amazingly far as to say we are before God's throne,all of us,RIGHT NOW.
Revelation 21:3: With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” (I believe this is referring to those on earth..Some Christians say that is impossible because God doesn't dwell with anyone on earth)
BEHOLD:
Leviticus 26:11,12:11 And I shall certainly put my tabernacle in the midst of you,and my soul will not abhor you. 12 And I shall indeed walk in the midst of you and prove myself your God, and you,on your part, will prove yourselves my people
In other words,when people obey God and seek him,even on earth,he DOES dwell with them,figuratively.Remember Adam and Eve had a direct relationship with Jehovah before they sinned and they sure didn't live in heaven.
Reasons why I think they ARE on earth..
1.They have palm branches,which to me screams "peace on earth"..it's possible I'm wrong but it's an opinion)
2.It is said they won't have to worry about the scorching sun or tears etc,all things people on earth would have to worry about,not those in heaven.
6.Why would God need to spread his tent over the heavens?Also,see all texts about the earth being populated forever and Jehovah never abandoning his purposes..one of which is paradise :))
The list ACTUALLY goes on and on.
**Lie # 4: All good people go to heaven.
*Matthew 5:5: “Happy are the mild-tempered ones, since they will inherit the earth.
*Psalm 37:29: The righteous themselves will possess the earth,
And they will reside forever upon it.
**Lie # 5:The lake of fire and eternal fire are literal.The Rich man and Lazarus are literal..
Few facts..If the Rich man and Lazarus is literal then you will live in Abraham's busom when you go to heaven.You will also be chit chatting with those burning alive in hell while you are in Abraham's busom in heaven.And all those in that fire will need is a lil drop of water and all will be well.Without research and by memory,I will say for right now that I THINK Lazarus symbolizes Good Christians in Jehovah's favor (busom position means in a favorable close relationship) ,Abraham symbolizes Jehovah,The rich man symbolizes people like the Pharisees who are spiritually ostracized from God and cannot possess his favor because they are not approved.Their judgment will be destruction and that IS the torment..their spiritual darkness,ostracization and ultimate annihilation.After all,fire CONSUMES what it burns and those in it become stubble,ashes,destroyed.Now Fire is used to symbolize that destruction from which there can be no resurrection so that is the judgment that is harsher than others.Those who have no chance of resurrection.In the OT when evil cities were burned up it was a COMPLETE AND UTTER annihilation,never to be inhabited again.I think this is the difference in hades and sheol and gehenna..Gehenna is like the lake of fire,NO resurrection,no hope.
*Revelation 21:8 their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death
*Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.
*Psalms 115:17-dead are silent,don't praise Jah
*Malachi 4:1:For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch
**Lie # 6:Once saved,always saved.
*1 Corinthians6:9 What! Do you not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, 10 nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.
*Phillipians 2:12:Consequently, my beloved ones, in the way that you have always obeyed, not during my presence only, but now much more readily during my absence, keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling
*Hebrews 10:26 For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, 27 but [there is] a certain fearful expectation of judgment and [there is] a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition. 28 Any man that has disregarded the law of Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. 29 Of how much more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt? 30 For we know him that said: “Vengeance is mine; I will recompense”; and again: “Jehovah will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of [the] living God.
* 1 John 5:3: For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments
*Zephaniah 2:3:seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.
*Romans 2:6 And he will render to each one according to his works: 7 everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good
*1 Corinthians 10:12 Consequently let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall
**Lie # 7:There can't be two creators or two saviors.Therefore,Jesus IS Jehovah.
..If you can't discern the following and what it means then I can't reason with ya.
*Jude 25: to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus the Messiah(as opposed to the only God our savior through another person in the same God,God the son Jesus,but not with the exclusion of the third person who I seem to be forgetting to mention a lot.)
* 1 Corinthians 8:6:yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom everything came into being and for whom we live. And there is only one Lord, Jesus the Messiah, through whom everything came into being and through whom we live.(as opposed to one God the father from whom everything came and one other person in the same God,God the son Jesus Christ,THROUGH whom everything came.)
Ever heard of God using people to make things happen?And doesn't it make sense that he has a chief agent and a MOST beloved and a firstborn son(who had to be MADE firstborn Ps. 89:27)("firstborn" connotates inheritances...yes!Jesus will inherit a kingdom as his most beloved firstborn.) who he would use to accomplish his will?God can't be contained in flesh and he can't be a man who can die(he's consistently imperishable.) And neither can another supposed person in the same God if that person is the same God as the other.Unbiblical philosophical creed spoutin nonsense!
Yep,anyone Jehovah uses to save or make all things new,as an agent,can be called savior and creator.But we aren't left in the dark who used them as a tool,albeit a mighty and beloved and elevated one.That's right JEHOVAH sends.JEHOVAH gives his spirit without measure.JEHOVAH sustains and saves THROUGH others.Who's behind the wheel ultimately?The one who uses or the one who is used?The One who gives the spirit or the one who is given the spirit?
*Lie # 8:Jesus only appeared to be fully man..he was REALLY also 100 percent God.
*Matthew 4:1-2; Mark 1:13 compare to Titus 1:2; James 1:13(stop saying a human nature limits a God nature..that is not even a possibility)
*Hebrews 2:17 :For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.(are his brothers 100 percent God too?)
*Hebrews 4:15: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.(Remember he was the Last Adam,who COULD'VE been without sin if he had relied upon Jehovah as heavily as Jesus did..in other words "without sin" doesn't mean he is God,it means he supplicated continually,relied on the spirit of his God and father to make it through,and conquered the world DESPITE being legitimately tempted and tried..a TRUE inspiration and example,as opposed to a pretender who couldn't REALLY succumb to temptation or be tried or die completely)
*Luke 2:52:Jesus grew in wisdom (God grew in wisdom?)
*Hebrews 5:8: Jesus learnt obedience (God learned obedience?)
*Lie # 9:Jesus never really died..his soul always lived.
Souls don't have immortality unless Jehovah allows them to.Jesus was GIFTED immortality AFTER being raised on the third day.Anything outside that is an unbiblical assumption inspired by philosophy and lies about the soul.
*Matt. 12:39-40:three days and three nights in the heart of the earth
*Revelation 1:18:the living one. I was dead, but look-I am alive forever and ever!
The actual PERSON of Jesus died,or Jesus lied.A flesh capsule with no person in it cannot properly die.
**Lie # 1:Death is the separation of the soul from the body.Souls never die.
*Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die
*Ezekial 18:4 :Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
*Psalm 146:4 His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.(spirit is "breath of life" like that which Jah gave Adam in order to be animate..that which can be restored upon resurrection)
*Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.(hell=gehenna(in this instance),where everything is burned up,consumed,annihilated)
*Matthew 9:23-25, John 11:11-14, Jeremiah 51:39, Acts 7:60-sleeping(IF the soul is alive burning or in heaven,then why a need for a resurrection at all or a FUTURE judgment day at all?Wouldn't the soul burning alive or existing in heaven dictate that a judgment has ALREADY been made?Wouldn't all the people who were resurrected in the word of God at least have mentioned the torment or bliss they had been brought back from?And wouldn't it have been intolerable cruelty to bring someone back from their "home with God?")
**Lie # 2:God is three persons.
*Deuteronomy 6:4 (New International Version)
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one
Footnotes:
Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The LORD our God is one LORD; or The LORD is our God, the LORD is one ; or The LORD is our God, the LORD alone
*Deuteronomy 32:39:there is no God besides Me(as opposed to "US")
*Isaiah 37:16:You are God, You alone(as opposed to "you are God..you three alone "OR "You three are God alone")
*Isaiah 43:10-11:Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me(as opposed to "there is no God but us and we are three.")
*Isaiah 46:9:I am God, and there is no other(as opposed to "I am God and there are two others")
*John 5:44:How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? (as opposed to "the only God who I am 1/3 of")
*James 2:19:You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe -- and tremble!(as opposed to "one God,three persons")
*1 Corinthians 8:4:Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one(as opposed to three)
*Jude 1:24:the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord(as opposed to the three personed god our savior,through one of the persons in the same God)
*Matthew 16:15 He said to them: “you, though, who do you say I am?” 16 In answer Simon Peter said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”(as opposed to "You are God the son,coequal and cosubstantial with God the father,one hundred percent God on top of one hundred percent man,and sometimes you let your human nature trump your God nature when you don't know certain things and when the human will is different from your "God will" then the human will sometimes wins because well,why wouldn't it?)
*John 17:3: This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.(as opposed to "taking in knowledge of you ,the only true God which includes the Lord I am about to mention in the same God I just mentioned.)
Sadly,I could go on forever.
**Lie # 3:Those before the throne have to be in heaven.And they can't be on earth because God is with them!(from revelation 7:9,which I think pertains to those on earth who survive the great tribulation)
The greek word translated "before" is enopion and means "in the sight of" and is used several times of humans on earth who are "before" or "in the sight of" Jehovah(from Revelation book,a WTBTS publication)
*Romans 14:22: The faith that you have, have it in accord with yourself in the sight of God. Happy is the man that does not put himself on judgment by what he approves.
*Galatians 1:20: Now as to the things I am writing you, look! in the sight of God, I am not lying.
I would venture so amazingly far as to say we are before God's throne,all of us,RIGHT NOW.
Revelation 21:3: With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” (I believe this is referring to those on earth..Some Christians say that is impossible because God doesn't dwell with anyone on earth)
BEHOLD:
Leviticus 26:11,12:11 And I shall certainly put my tabernacle in the midst of you,and my soul will not abhor you. 12 And I shall indeed walk in the midst of you and prove myself your God, and you,on your part, will prove yourselves my people
In other words,when people obey God and seek him,even on earth,he DOES dwell with them,figuratively.Remember Adam and Eve had a direct relationship with Jehovah before they sinned and they sure didn't live in heaven.
Reasons why I think they ARE on earth..
1.They have palm branches,which to me screams "peace on earth"..it's possible I'm wrong but it's an opinion)
2.It is said they won't have to worry about the scorching sun or tears etc,all things people on earth would have to worry about,not those in heaven.
6.Why would God need to spread his tent over the heavens?Also,see all texts about the earth being populated forever and Jehovah never abandoning his purposes..one of which is paradise :))
The list ACTUALLY goes on and on.
**Lie # 4: All good people go to heaven.
*Matthew 5:5: “Happy are the mild-tempered ones, since they will inherit the earth.
*Psalm 37:29: The righteous themselves will possess the earth,
And they will reside forever upon it.
**Lie # 5:The lake of fire and eternal fire are literal.The Rich man and Lazarus are literal..
Few facts..If the Rich man and Lazarus is literal then you will live in Abraham's busom when you go to heaven.You will also be chit chatting with those burning alive in hell while you are in Abraham's busom in heaven.And all those in that fire will need is a lil drop of water and all will be well.Without research and by memory,I will say for right now that I THINK Lazarus symbolizes Good Christians in Jehovah's favor (busom position means in a favorable close relationship) ,Abraham symbolizes Jehovah,The rich man symbolizes people like the Pharisees who are spiritually ostracized from God and cannot possess his favor because they are not approved.Their judgment will be destruction and that IS the torment..their spiritual darkness,ostracization and ultimate annihilation.After all,fire CONSUMES what it burns and those in it become stubble,ashes,destroyed.Now Fire is used to symbolize that destruction from which there can be no resurrection so that is the judgment that is harsher than others.Those who have no chance of resurrection.In the OT when evil cities were burned up it was a COMPLETE AND UTTER annihilation,never to be inhabited again.I think this is the difference in hades and sheol and gehenna..Gehenna is like the lake of fire,NO resurrection,no hope.
*Revelation 21:8 their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death
*Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.
*Psalms 115:17-dead are silent,don't praise Jah
*Malachi 4:1:For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch
**Lie # 6:Once saved,always saved.
*1 Corinthians6:9 What! Do you not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, 10 nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.
*Phillipians 2:12:Consequently, my beloved ones, in the way that you have always obeyed, not during my presence only, but now much more readily during my absence, keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling
*Hebrews 10:26 For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, 27 but [there is] a certain fearful expectation of judgment and [there is] a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition. 28 Any man that has disregarded the law of Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. 29 Of how much more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt? 30 For we know him that said: “Vengeance is mine; I will recompense”; and again: “Jehovah will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of [the] living God.
* 1 John 5:3: For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments
*Zephaniah 2:3:seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.
*Romans 2:6 And he will render to each one according to his works: 7 everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good
*1 Corinthians 10:12 Consequently let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall
**Lie # 7:There can't be two creators or two saviors.Therefore,Jesus IS Jehovah.
..If you can't discern the following and what it means then I can't reason with ya.
*Jude 25: to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus the Messiah(as opposed to the only God our savior through another person in the same God,God the son Jesus,but not with the exclusion of the third person who I seem to be forgetting to mention a lot.)
* 1 Corinthians 8:6:yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom everything came into being and for whom we live. And there is only one Lord, Jesus the Messiah, through whom everything came into being and through whom we live.(as opposed to one God the father from whom everything came and one other person in the same God,God the son Jesus Christ,THROUGH whom everything came.)
Ever heard of God using people to make things happen?And doesn't it make sense that he has a chief agent and a MOST beloved and a firstborn son(who had to be MADE firstborn Ps. 89:27)("firstborn" connotates inheritances...yes!Jesus will inherit a kingdom as his most beloved firstborn.) who he would use to accomplish his will?God can't be contained in flesh and he can't be a man who can die(he's consistently imperishable.) And neither can another supposed person in the same God if that person is the same God as the other.Unbiblical philosophical creed spoutin nonsense!
Yep,anyone Jehovah uses to save or make all things new,as an agent,can be called savior and creator.But we aren't left in the dark who used them as a tool,albeit a mighty and beloved and elevated one.That's right JEHOVAH sends.JEHOVAH gives his spirit without measure.JEHOVAH sustains and saves THROUGH others.Who's behind the wheel ultimately?The one who uses or the one who is used?The One who gives the spirit or the one who is given the spirit?
*Lie # 8:Jesus only appeared to be fully man..he was REALLY also 100 percent God.
*Matthew 4:1-2; Mark 1:13 compare to Titus 1:2; James 1:13(stop saying a human nature limits a God nature..that is not even a possibility)
*Hebrews 2:17 :For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.(are his brothers 100 percent God too?)
*Hebrews 4:15: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.(Remember he was the Last Adam,who COULD'VE been without sin if he had relied upon Jehovah as heavily as Jesus did..in other words "without sin" doesn't mean he is God,it means he supplicated continually,relied on the spirit of his God and father to make it through,and conquered the world DESPITE being legitimately tempted and tried..a TRUE inspiration and example,as opposed to a pretender who couldn't REALLY succumb to temptation or be tried or die completely)
*Luke 2:52:Jesus grew in wisdom (God grew in wisdom?)
*Hebrews 5:8: Jesus learnt obedience (God learned obedience?)
*Lie # 9:Jesus never really died..his soul always lived.
Souls don't have immortality unless Jehovah allows them to.Jesus was GIFTED immortality AFTER being raised on the third day.Anything outside that is an unbiblical assumption inspired by philosophy and lies about the soul.
*Matt. 12:39-40:three days and three nights in the heart of the earth
*Revelation 1:18:the living one. I was dead, but look-I am alive forever and ever!
The actual PERSON of Jesus died,or Jesus lied.A flesh capsule with no person in it cannot properly die.
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